Pleasing the Masses
by USCG CCT
Summary: After finding a Protoss ship floating through space, a Terran ghost finds out that the legendary Queen of Blades isn't the only one able to lead the Zerg. Seeing the devastation that they can bring, he takes it upon himself to keep them away from the Terran civilizations and ends up trapping them all in the land of Westeros. "They say that war never changes, how wrong they were."
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone, this is a story that I've had on my mind for quite some time and after several hours of planning, I have finally completed the first chapter. Please enjoy.**

It was only a few hours before the break of dawn on the planet Adena, a Terran Dominion mining world, miles away from any colony or civilization. Out in the middle of a former mining area that went dry years ago and was abandoned, were two small ships, one was a Dominion cargo vessel and the other was a drop ship that belonged to a former Raynor's Raider's ghost named Derrick. Throughout the Koprulu sector these interactions would always turn out deadly but unlike those conflicts, this one was held by old friends doing business that would get both of them killed had anyone found out about them. The ghost, Derrick was in the process of buying any medical supplies that his longtime friend, Jackson could steal for him. Derrick started doing these supply run three months ago after Marshall Jim Raynor was pronounced dead throughout the sector by the Dominion.

The Raiders were the only ones that would allow him to live a free life ever since he discovered his psionic abilities, the only ones that would allow him to live a peaceful life once the war with the Zerg and Protoss was over; and Arcturus Mengsk was the man who killed his greatest chance at that.

About three years before that, Derrick decided to join one of the Raider's medical teams until they were taught how to train proper ghosts. He spent his time learning all that he could about medicine and emergency treatment and served as a corpsman onboard the Hyperion and at one of Umojan facilities. His career changed when the Raiders started learning how to train or liberate former ghosts for their own armies through some unknown method, even though most people believed that someone from within the Dominion ghost program was helping them. Derrick saw this as an opportunity to do even more impact in the war by being on the battlefield rather than being at a medical aid station caring for the wounded.

Derrick hid his psionic powers since he was a young teenager, only being able to experiment with his powers a couple times every few months because of where he lived and he didn't want to risk being taken away from his home and sent to the Confederacy if anyone knew about him, but when the Raiders started soliciting for people to join the new program he left the medic corps to start training down a new career path. Throughout the six-month training course, he was at a disadvantage due to the fact that all of the other ghost trainees had spent most of their entire lives focusing on how to use their abilities either in small towns or as Dominion ghost, unlike Derrick who spent his life learning his passion, medicine.

Once his training was complete, he was attached to the Raider's second battalion, third goliath division where he would conduct scouting operations to make way for any armor or marines making their way to the battlefield. The last assignment with the raiders was on Umoja where they were keeping Kerrigan after the assault on Char. That facility came under attack once the Dominion found out where they were hiding and dealt a crippling blow to the Raider by capturing their leader, then announcing his execution days later.

Derrick, however, escaped the facility and found himself separated from his ghost team and rather than regrouping with the Raiders, he decided that his time with the rebels was over but still transported medical supplies and treatment to some of their more isolated colonies; which led him this moment: out in the middle of nowhere, with an old friend, stealing and reselling Dominion property.

The last crate of various medical supplies went onboard the ship as the last payment went into his suppliers account through his datapad. "Alright looks it's all here, I'd leave soon as possible if I were you; the next wraith patrol is in half an hour, but please be careful on your way out of here. I'd hate for any of this to come back to me."

"You're killing me with these prices Jackson; every couple of weeks they go up." Running a mobile clinic across worlds by himself was a very expensive operation, even more so when his only source of income was doing personal 'Ghost' contracts whenever he could get his hands on one. These assignments usually involved mercenary work that leads to more than a few dead bodies. This last month was especially hard on him after a bunch of his medicine was stolen by someone from him while he was at Mar Sara. He spent three days tracking down the group that broke into his drop ship but by the time he got to them all of the stolen supplies were either used or sold to someone else.

"I'm sorry but people are starting to notice that a bunch of stuff is going missing, and if I die doing this then I want to know that my family has the money to get by without me." Jackson replied, only receiving an annoyed look from Derrick. "This is getting riskier every time we do this shit; now I could get a friend a call that lives on Tarsonis. He may be able to get more stuff for you there but I don't know how far out into Dominion space you want to go."

Derrick looked at the crates of supplies being loaded by one of Jackson's friends in an SCV; he thought about how much help he could provide with just that one crate. 'One hundred IV solutions, several hundred needles and tubing, lidocaine, epinephrine, gauze, ortho-glass, splints, Motrin, cold medicine, and water purification all in one of those small crates, and I have fifteen of those onboard with so much more. I could change the lives of another two whole colonies with this. The extra seventy-five thousand credits are worth it.'

"Can't say that I won't eventually head over to Tarsonis, but for the time being, I think I'm better off in this area. I'll just have to take a few more 'special' trips for some more money In the future." Derrick held out his hand which Jackson firmly shook with his own.

"I really do appreciate what you're doing for all those folks out there. Be safe now." Compassion was in Jackson's voice as he waved for his SCV friend to head back to their dropship. "Hope to see you again soon."

"You be safe as well and let me know if anything happens; I try to get back as soon as possible."

They both waved goodbye to each other and departed for their separate ships. It didn't take long for Jackson's engines to start up and roar to life, and after about two minutes of allowing them to heat up the ship started to generate lift and raised itself about forty feet into the air.

Derrick just stood inside of the darkened bay door of his own dropship of the same model that he named the 'Caduceus' and watched as his accomplice took off into the direction of the mining colony before anyone noticed how long he was gone for. Stepping inside of the Caduceus, he navigated around the tightly packed cargo, making sure that everything was secured and wouldn't move around once he took off, then made his way up to the cockpit and started the clutch-in process to get his ship's engines to start-up. The whole process took a few minutes due to his pre-flight checks that included the airtight sealing, navigation coordinates, testing propulsion, along with several other things.

After checking the scanner and looking out the windows to see if there were any patrols, Derrick fastened his seatbelt and started to apply pressure to the throttle, causing the dropship to take off. The entire ship rattled as it speared through the layers of the atmosphere into space; he was thankful that he made sure that all the new supplies and equipment was strapped down to the deck and wouldn't break.

As the Caduceus entered space the interior stopped shaking as much but was still very noticeable along with the low roar of the engines pushing him through space and on his way to the planet Agria; a fringed world that was being overrun by the Zerg about two years ago. Derrick was with the Raider's when they went to Agria to defend the colonist from both the Zerg and the Protoss leader Selendis, while they were being evacuated. Now the colonies there are next on his list for a support effort while they battle the Dominion to secure their independence.

Now that the track-line was set in the navigational systems to Agria, Derrick was free to move about the ship as he pleased. While transiting in between planets there wasn't much to do on the Caduceus aside from watching the TV that he set up next to his bed along with some video games that he had set up. He liked to keep himself entertained with anything that he was able to get his hands on such as his dartboard or a few puzzle games that he had inside of a cabinet.

Stripping off his armor at the end of the day along with taking a shower was always a relaxing moment that he tried to savor with the limited amount of water that he could store onboard, but it's a joyful five minutes of his day. After stowing away his armor and rifle, Derrick heated up some food and poured himself a drink from a half-empty whiskey bottle while he turned on the TV. He turned the channel to a game show that allowed people to win money by solving word riddles with a time limit. Even though it wasn't the most exciting program it was still a good time-waster that kept him entertained and reminded him of more enjoyable times in the past.

"You are on your fifth one for ten thousand credits," the host said through the TV to the contestant as the audience cheered, "The next questions will get a bit more difficult than before but I think you'll be able to handle it."

Derrick took another bite out of his pulled pork meal that he had in front of him while anticipating the next question. "Alright now for the last one of the first round, you have sixty seconds to answer; there are seven letters to this one with the first one being the letter 'L'; with that, here is your riddle: Nobody wants me, yet nobody wants to lose me. What am I?"

Taking another sip from the glass of whiskey Derrick thought about the question briefly before calling out answers to the monitor. "Lawyers! Wait, that doesn't make sense with the last part. Um, seven letters."

The constant on the show kept on shouting answers and seemed just as confused as Derrick and started to panic as the timer hit thirty seconds. "I'll stick with it, its lawyers!" Derrick would always let himself get excited when watching these shows and would think back to when he would watch the same stuff with his ghost or marine friends during his time in the Raiders. These types of shows were always enjoyed by the crew and would the subject of many drinking games in the mess hall during the evenings after a hard day's work.

"Ten seconds left, is 'lenders' your final answer?"

"Yes, it is." The contestant answered nervously. A few seconds of silence went by until a loud buzzer went off, signaling an incorrect answer.

"I'm sorry but the answer was 'Lawsuits'."

"Shit! I was on the right track." Derrick shouted before listening to the TV again and taking another sip of his drink.

"Fortunately you still had your freebie so you can still continue but you're still stuck at eight thousand credits but this next riddle is worth fifteen thousand, so let's get right to it. Remember that these ones are harder than the last set; so this is a nine letter word starting with the letter 'I' and your hint is the word 'Justice'; here is your riddle: I'm as a child, a lamb, and a simpleton at once. All are born with me, yet few possess me at their moment of death. What am I?"

"The fuck is a simpleton? let's see, child, lamb, death." Derrick said, listing off what he thought were keywords to the puzzle. "Few possess me in death but all are born with me. Can't really be a body part; could it be what someone else gives them?"

"Thirty seconds."

The contestant on the screen was pounding at their head just as much as Derrick was but shouting everything that came to their mind, none of them being the correct answer.

The lights around Derrick suddenly dimmed around him and turned blue while an alarm started going off. He hastily jumped up from his seat and ran over to the cockpit to see what could have triggered the alarm but saw the answer outside of the window in front of him before the onboard adjutant was able to read off the alarm.

Off in the distance was the unmistakable golden hull of a Protoss vessel. "Get me the heading and speed of that ship now! Turn off all exterior lights and radios." While shouting voice commands into his console, he stared at the threat that was ten miles out in front of him; he couldn't tell the exact size but from what he could tell, the Protoss ship was about one thousand yards long but couldn't see how wide it was.

"Acknowledged." The computer confirmed. "Protoss vessel is currently adrift at a speed of three hundred knots and is not operating using astern propulsion."

It didn't match any combat vessel that he even heard or seen like a carrier or tempest; even so, if it attacked his only chance of survival was to run or hide. "You're telling me that it's floating around dead out there?"

"Confirmed, scanners indicate that the Protoss ship has several holes on the outer hull and is currently unpowered, unshielded, and without any signs or repairs being made by its crew."

An idea started to brew inside of his head, "So nobody is trying to fix or salvage it? Not even the crew?"

"That is correct." The computer replied.

"Is there a chance that the crew is even alive?"

"While the possibility exists, it appears as though the vessel has been in this state for approximately four to six months."

'So whatever was on board is probability starved to death already.' Derrick pondered.

Protoss technology was a very valuable resource that few outside of the military come by; the usual method of collecting it is on the battlefield and gathering it all by hand, most of it would be severely damaged with the occasional semi‐functional immortal weapon system. Even those few working parts were worth a small fortune to the right buyer, and if this ship hadn't already been raided by someone else than it was worth it to look around and try to find anything that could help fund his clinic.

"Take us in slowly no more than a twenty‐five-knot difference between us, once were within fifteen hundred meters transfer to manual controls and alert me if anything changes." Derrick left the cockpit to go change back into his ghost armor.

It was a black, skin-tight mesh layer that was surrounded by lightly armored plates. Sewed in were wires that went all throughout the suit to power his cloaking field and allowed the wearer to appear transparent to the naked eye. Underneath his suit, he wore a set of light fabric long sleeve shirt and pants to help absorb sweat and to keep a layer of cloth in between his skin and the suit's material. Over his head, he wore black headgear that was almost like a ski mask that hooked into his armor for both the cloaking field as well as having an optic over his left eye that would offer him either a magnified view, night‐vision, or inferred layer over everything he could see.

Next to his armor, he kept a small weapons locker that held a small variety of weapons for different situations that mainly consisted of either small or long-range engagement as well as some different options for missions that relied on being stealthful. Even with the possibility of nothing being alive on board, Derrick still wanted to go for the stealth option on the off chance that there were Protoss survivors that didn't like having Terran guest around.

"Protoss vessel is seventeen hundred meters off our bow at zero-zero-eight degrees with a right bearing drift." The adjutant states over the ship's internal speaker.

He hastily slung a CK‐27 rifle over his shoulder, strapped a T10 pistol to his right thigh, and put four magazines of each into the slots in his armor before making his way back to his seat. Derrick could feel his heart rate quicken as he fastened himself to his seat while staring at the massive ship in front of him.

The dropship crept closer to the Protoss vessel, still testing to see if any threat was still there. His knuckles started to turn white from the death grip that he had on his throttle; should the slightest hint of danger arise he would immediately dive down under the enemy and escape from their other side if possible.

As the Caduceus was within three hundred meters he was able to see the different areas where the hull had large holes from what looked like explosions that came from the inside due to the shape of the metal surrounding the area.

Every possibility of what could go wrong was starting to swarm his mind, the largest being hostile Protoss still being on board, something going wrong with his own ship while trying to land, or even getting trapped inside. Even though there was a large risk, the payout would be larger than any contract that he had as a ghost operative.

Although it was a foreign vessel it wasn't very hard to tell where the landing bays were, and after finding one that was large enough he started to make the descent. It also came as a surprise to Derrick that there must have been some type of emergency system that still allowed the hangar to maintain the atmosphere within, luckily. With the state that the ship was in, it didn't come as a surprise that the landing bay would have been pitch black without his lights cutting through the darkness.

The landing gears hissed as they took on the weight of the dropship when it landed along with the bay door opening up for Derrick to depart. Holding a cutting torch in one hand and his rifle by the carry handle in the other, he took his first step onto the treacherous path that laid before him.

After making his way to the door of the hangar he grounded the fuel and oxygen tank to his cutting torch and started working on cutting a small hole for him to crawl through. Since the ship was unpowered he expected to have to do this every time he came to a door or hatch.

He could feel the heat from the torch start to seep in through his protective gloves and had to adjust his hand placement every few seconds to avoid the burning sensation. After a few minutes went by he finally had cut a three-foot hole for him to be able to fit through.

Derrick closed the valves to the torch and carried it through the newly made hole, expecting to have to use it soon. "So far so good." He said as he took his first step. His state of mind immediately changed as his foot hit the ground and felt a very soft substance. The flashlights switched on and revealed the last thing he expected to find covering the Protoss floor: creep.

 **This is a fair warning, it will take a few chapters before everything at Westeros starts to take off. I plan for the first few chapters for building up some new and old characters from Starcraft and showing how Derrick takes command of his own brood. Thank you again for reading.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for the amount of response that you all gave from the first chapter, it really helps me push myself to write these chapters. Some people did message me about the amount of time that it will take to get to the full Game of Thrones x Starcraft crossover and my answer is that after chapter six is when the story will really pick up. I don't want to really rush through the build up on how Derrick becomes the leader of a Zerg brood otherwise I believe that it won't be as a significant thing as it should be.**

"What the fuck is this shit doing here?" Derrick said as he opened up his hand and allowed some creep to fall in between his fingers onto the ground. Looking around, he saw that most of the area was just stained purple, indicating that creep used to be there and that he stepped in the only creep left anywhere near him. Farther down the hallway he also found the remains of a zergling that looked as though something had been eating it.

Curiosity overcame and forced him to continue to walk down the dark, wide passageway, ever so vigilant. He decided to leave behind his cutting torch so he could have his rifle at the ready in case if there were any Zerg around, he could always turn back around and grab the torch after making sure the path was clear. A confirmation ping went off on his datapad as he marked his location so that even if he forgot what the path he took inside of the ship he had something to fall back on.

More carcasses were littered about along with dried up patches of where creep used to cover the ground and walls. Derrick dug through the corpses, looking for anything of use or a clue as to what happened onboard that lead to the Zerg taking over. After not finding anything he kept moving and came around a corner then immediately took cover behind the wall he just passed. Down the hall was a zergling digging through a hydralisk skeleton, trying to see if any other Zerg left any meat on the bones for it to eat.

Just like most other zerglings, this one was about the height of a great dane and walked on all fours along with two limbs that came out of its shoulders and had a set of claws on each of them. It's back supported two insect-like wings that couldn't support flight but it would help it run faster by lifting some of its weight.

Derrick rose his rifle up and tried to sneak around the zergling without alerting it to his presence. While quietly pacing towards another hallway, he started to notice how skinny and frail the zergling was and how every movement was slow and weak like a stray dog.

'How long has it been stuck out here?' He thought to himself. The zergling started to smell the air around it after not being able to find any food. Derrick's mind brushed against the zergling's unintentionally and seemed very beast-like in nature, unlike the ravenous state they're normally in. It was feral and leaderless, whether it was not under the control of a pack from the Zerg's hive mind or it was alone on the ship.

The zergling felt Derrick's mind and slowly brought it's head around and stared into his eyes but remained still. He flipped the safety off of his rifle and aimed it at the zergling's body and waited for it to make a move.

'Not now, not now.' If he had to fire his weapon it could alert more Zerg to him and force him to leave, making this trip a waste of time. 'Just turn the other way and leave.' He thought nervously with his finger on the trigger. A low hiss came from the monster in front of him while they both locked eyes in a mental battle to see who would make the first move. Derrick knew that he could kill it easily but didn't want to risk making the noise to attract others. 'Don't make me do this.'

The hissing ceased from his opponent as it turned its head to search another skeleton from an unknown animal on board. Derrick took this moment to slowly walk away as he was before while still having his sights fixed on the potential threat in front of him.

He made sure that he was far enough away from danger before allowing himself to slide down a wall and have a seat on the cold ground. "What the fuck am I doing here?" His hands were clenched around his skull and if he wasn't wearing his mask then he would have been ripping out his hair. The pressure from his heartbeat could be felt through his ears and throat as it quickened.

The ideas of what could go wrong that he had on his ship were already ripped to shreds and replaced by the nightmares that he experienced while on Char as a ghost during the fight against the queen of blades. While he didn't suffer any physical injuries, he still had plenty of emotional scars that weren't healed and likely never would.

After about a minute of resting, he started to be able to control his breathing and collect his thoughts. 'If I'm going to run then this is my last chance.' He picked up his rifle again and faced the unexplored, darkened hallway. 'If you take one more step then you won't turn back around until you have your prize.' This was his way of self-motivation; all throughout life he would create small goals for himself to complete that would eventually lead to completing a larger goal.

Thinking back to the zergling he wondered why it stopped the aggression so suddenly; they've never backed down before even when severely outmatched. What stood out to him the most was when he touched it's mind with his psionic abilities and realized that it was feral, leaderless, and seemed to stop after he spoke to it. 'Don't be fucking ridiculous.' He thought to himself, 'They're mindless beast that only follow their brood mothers, not some ghost like me.'

He took a step into the darkness, then another followed by several more until he was back at a steady pace. Checking every room he came across would always turn up empty and would only find dead Zerg and other beasts that were on top of stasis platforms. "Why would the Protoss carry animals onboard their ships?" Derrick thought out loud. While walking around the room he would shuffle some of the dried bone near the stasis platforms to see if anything was buried beneath them. He did this in a few areas around the room until his foot hit something hard and heavy. Getting down on his knees, he began sifting through the pile and uncovered his first prize: a Protoss warp blade used by one of their zealot warriors.

The massive gauntlet that would produce a blade made of plasma from its center when activated, was almost as large as his entire arm and required two to even carry it. Useless for him in combat, valuable at an auction. Before searching more of the room he marked its location on his datapad. He was very thorough while checking every corner of the room and under every piece of debris but still couldn't find anything else of value and decided to move on.

Derrick's motivation was starting to rise after finally finding something of value but yet again he brought his gun up as soon as he exited the area and found two hydralisk fighting each other on who was going to eat who.

The serpent-like creatures always gave him a hard time on the battlefield; last time he had a run-in with one of them was while he was riding passenger in an ATV on char after the battle against the queen of blades was over. They drove over it while it was burrowed beneath the ground and decided to come up as they were overhead and flipped them on their side. Derrick was able to get out of the wreckage but his driver had her leg pinned underneath the vehicle above the knee. He grabbed his rifle and poked his head out from the cover of the ATV and started firing at the hydralisk.

The Zerg warrior returned the favor by firing its own needle spines out of its body towards him, striking him twice in his chest. His armor stopped the first one that hit his gut but didn't have the same results that hit the right side of his chest, the spine embedded itself about two inches into his muscle and bone but didn't pierce his lung or ventral sac. He had to adjust to peeking in and out of cover to deliver his rounds while managing his pain which was provoked every time he fired. After going through two magazines of almost blind firing, the hydralisk finally fell and he was able to turn his attention to his partner.

She was desperately trying to dig at the ground to try to free her leg without any visible amount of progress being made because of the dry, cracked dirt. Derrick wasn't strong enough to lift the large machine off of her and time was running out. More Zerg could be seen on the horizon and they were in a frenzy after their leader was defeated. He hastily grabbed a tourniquet out of his bag and slipped it under the panicked woman's leg then pulled out a pair of trauma shears and began cutting away the fabric surrounding her leg.

As soon as the skin was exposed it was easy to tell that there was internal hemorrhaging in her thigh because of the color. He then ran to the back of the ATV and grabbed the ax that was kept in the back then ran back to her. Derrick started to coach her on what was about to happen. He gave her the count to three but swung on two. Her voice gave out as the limb was separated from it's home and her hands started to tighten around her leg to apply some occlusion to the flow of blood.

The tourniquet was then tightened as high up her leg as it would go until the flow of blood was cut off. Needle spines started to bounce off their cover from incoming hydralisk as they got up on their feet. Derrick had to abandon his rifle so that he could help his fellow medic to safety on her single leg. They started to run as fast as they could, all the while Derrick could feel her strength start to fade with each stride she took but she still kept on going.

Eventually, she started to limp more and more until Derrick was just dragging her over his shoulder while still dealing with the projectiles stuck inside of his armor and flesh. He turned his head around to find that three Zerg roaches were following him and were starting to close the distance between them but he still kept on going.

It wasn't long until they started to spray their acid bile in their direction, the shots were off but were getting closer with each volley. He looked back down at the medic and saw that her eyes were completely void of life along with a trail of blood behind them both.

His tourniquet slipped off a long time ago.

Derrick came to a full stop after he realized what had happened and paused as it sank in that the medic had no hope of recovery. He came back to his senses as he saw roach fire another shot of acid at them and dropped to the ground. Small amounts of the projectile landed on his back armor plating but much more hit his patient. The entire lower half of her body was missing with chunks of flesh and synthetic leather dissolving in the roach's bile.

One of them had already closed the distance and was trying to fit whatever was left of her leg into it's jaws, not paying any attention to Derrick. They weren't Zerg without their leader, they were pack dogs, picking off the weak deer for an easy meal.

Derrick had to leave his partner behind to able to escape that day, but to him it remained as his largest loss of life to this very day. All because of a single hydralisk and a tourniquet that he forgot to lock into place.

Sneaking past the hydralisk in front of him wasn't an option. They both were still fighting each other in front of him with their scythe-shaped blades at the end of their arms.

While aiming his rifle at the two of them he decided to test something out that he noticed after his encounter with the zergling. Reaching out with his mind and spoke two words to them, 'Fight elsewhere.'

They both were swinging at each other for a few more seconds before noticing the command and started to slow down their movements. Pausing for a moment, then turning away from him, they obeyed his command and slithered down the passageway.

'It worked. I can't believe this shit worked.' Derrick thought in disbelief. Suddenly the hydralisk both stood up straight, turned to face the ghost, let out a deathly hiss, and charged him. "This is fucking bullshit!"

His finger slammed down on the trigger and released a steady stream of bullets into one of the assailants while he started moving back to keep the distance between them. The movements of the Zerg were slow and weak because of the starvation but continued with purpose even as one of them fell to Derrick's consistent flow of rounds that struck its torso.

The remaining ammunition in his magazine went into the next one but was empty after only a few shots. The hydralisk was just over two yards in front of him by now and lifted its arm in an attempt to slash at him. He dove down to avoided the attack and jumped across the lower half of its body that would drag across the ground then kept on running to put some distance in between them while he reloaded his rifle.

Derrick looked up at the hydralisk while reloading and saw the Zerg start to stumble while turning around then completely collapse to the ground. The creature used the last bit of it's remaining energy to attack him with only enough left to let out a few pathetic cries of pain and hunger.

The next magazine was locked into place inside of the gun with another round racked into the chamber. All that he had to do was pull the trigger to end its suffering as he walked towards it with his sights fixed at the base of its skull.

Derrick looked into the giant serpent's pleading eyes. Nobody had ever seen a Zerg pleading for death and he didn't even have to connect to it's mind to tell that it wanted to die.

A loud crack came from the gun as he granted its wish.

"I need to use my cloaking field more." Derrick said, triggering the stealth mode on his suit that made him seem transparent.

A part of him felt somewhat sympathetic towards the creature because of the amount of suffering it must have gone through but quickly extinguished it as he clutched onto the thoughts of all of the dead soldiers that he fought alongside with that died to the Zerg. It could rot in hell with the rest of them for all he cared and hoped he could find more of them to send along with it.

Like a gentle breeze he felt the presence of another being's mind but unlike the others, it was trying to lead him somewhere. It wasn't threatening or commanding, it was pleading, begging for him to listen to it. Derrick saw it as a trail for him to find more of them.

 _'Please. Hurry.'_

The ghost never heard a Zerg's voice or about the Zerg ever being able to speak to a human aside from the queen of blades herself. He was on guard as he made his way to the direction of whatever was calling him.

The cloaking field stayed up the entire way through the powerless Protoss vessel; he already ran into the Zerg twice and wanted to have a better chance of assessing a threat before engaging it this time.

 _'You will not be harmed.'_

There was no reason or desire for him to believe the voice and he had no intention of giving the same courtesy to whoever was communicating with him.

The path lead him into a large open area that looked like the control center of the ship and unlike how most Terran battlecruisers had a smaller bridge compared to the overall size of the vessel, this one was about five hundred feet long with several ramps leading up and down platforms with broken consoles all around the area.

 _"You are like the queen."_

Derrick's attention shifted to the center of the room. Lying atop of the bones and armor plating of all the Protoss onboard was a Zerg broodmother.

If she were standing, the top of her head would be around fifteen feet tall. The body was just as long as she was tall and was supported by six legs that were connected to each other on both sides with a webbed membrane. Towards the front of her lower body, the main torso rose up and appeared almost humanoid in structure with two arms and a head with mandibles at the jaw and without a mouth. And all over her was a carapace armor plating that would be tough for his weapons to pierce.

 _"There is no need to hide. I can see through your deception."_ The broodmother said weakly. _"Nobody will seek to harm you."_

His gun remained leveled with the Zerg leader as he dropped his shield. "If you didn't order those hydralisk to attack me, then I might believe you."

 _"One by one my children have been dying over the past few weeks, but never have I sensed someone else taking over my influence and giving them commands to follow."_ The broodmother was out of breath from the conversation already and had to pause before continuing. "I've only looked into the queen of blades thoughts and memories for a short time before becoming trapped her and this is my first time seeing a human in person, but it is customary for us to introduce ourselves is it not?"

'What is she playing at?' Derrick thought to himself. "The Zerg I've met never really wanted to know my name, just what I taste like."

 _"Does it look like I have a mouth to taste you with?"_

"Smartass." Derrick huffed under his breath. "Alright, my name is Derrick Packer. What do I call you?"

 _"I am broodmother Niadra. And I was made by the queen of blades with the sole purpose to kill all Protoss and I intend to follow those orders until the day I die."_

"Quite a goal she gave you, too bad your queen is dead. I was there on Char when we invaded and turned her back into a human. I lost a good friend that day because of bastards like you." He put his sights back onto Niadra and rested his finger on the trigger. "Anything else you want to talk about before I reunite you with your children."

 _"I was made by the queen after everything happened Char. She is off in the sector reclaiming her broods, but she abandoned us out here because I am not strong enough, which is why I need your help."_ The brood mother admitted with a sincere tone.

"Explain to me why I would help you? Seriously, what could you possibly use to get me to do what you want? Because from what I can see, you're all just about dead, and the last ones that tried to kill me could only move a few yards before collapsing." Derrick was getting tired of her stalling and decided to flip the safety off of his gun.

Niadra took another deep breath in before turning her head to the side. _"She won't."_

Before he could even look at what she was referring to, a large purple mass of Zerg struck him from the side and knocked him several yards to the side. The sheer impact of the collision forced him to drop his gun and he found himself staring at what the Zerg called a 'Swarm queen' which filled the role of taking care of the hatcheries and eggs and healing other wounded Zerg.

 _"You will listen human."_ The queen commanded while standing her ground in between him and his rifle. Swarm queens shared a very close resemblance to brood mothers in all but two things which were their overall size- which was on average half the height and length- and the amount of brain matter that didn't allow them to have much mental capacity for problem-solving and only allowed them to be able to control a small number of Zerg.

 _"Enough Ryril."_ Niadra's word was law within her brood; and just as all the others, no Zerg could disobey a command. Because all Zerg were connected to each other using their hive mind, it wasn't physically possible for any of them to go against an order, most of them didn't have a mind capable of independent thought or personality. _"This is Ryril, my personal guard. I made sure that she was well fed so that if something or someone came along then she would be able to protect me."_

Derrick wondered if she fed the other Zerg to her or if maybe the queen got her nutrients from the pile of Protoss that Niadra was sitting on.

 _"listen closely Derrick,"_ She continued. _"If I had another option to keep my children from eating each other then I wouldn't hesitate to kill you now, but you are the only one able to fly that ship in the hangar."_

Catching his own breath after having the wind knocked out of him he replied, "What, you want me to go on a food run?"

 _"You and Ryril are going to help us escape this place."_

 **I've also added a progress bar on my profile page that I'll update as I write the chapters so that everyone can get an idea of when the next chapter will be.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Finally got done with the next chapter. I want to thank everyone again for your support and feedback, I've been answering any questions asked from PM's or reviews so if you have questions than don't hesitate to ask away.**

Six hours have passed since Derrick found Niadra and Ryril on the bridge of the ship and was now inside of the cockpit of his parked dropship with Ryril inside of the cargo bay trying to peek inside the front to watch him. After agreeing to help out Niadra they needed to take out all of the large crates of his medical supplies for Ryril to fit as well as loading on another that would be a key part of their mission.

Inside of the crate was the last of the creep that was found onboard along with about fifty larvae from one of the nearly dead hatcheries that were grown after Niadra captured the ship. The crate was only about six feet tall and wide, which surprised Derrick about how much creep they were able to gather from it spreading into some of the small vents that the Zerg couldn't reach. He spent about an hour crawling and scooping the stuff out of these hard to reach areas with a bucket just to get enough.

There wasn't much room to begin with but they were able to squeeze Ryril in even though she couldn't stand up to her full height. Their newly packed crate was also secured tightly to the deck using ratchet straps.

During that process, he started to review some of his notes on different smuggling routes used by pirates and traffickers of all types. The plan was for him and Ryril to commander a small ship that would fit Niadra and the few remaining Zerg onboard. Well, it was more for Derrick to capture it and if he didn't then Ryril would make sure he didn't escape alive.

The pre-flight checklist was complete and ready to take-off with the engines roaring, "Are you ready back there?" He shouted through the open door to Ryril.

 _"Let's just get this over with so that I don't have to be stuck inside of this death machine."_ She was probably the only living Zerg that has ever been able to ride inside of a human dropship but wasn't feeling very lucky while needing to completely lie down from the lack of room.

The engines became even louder as more throttle was given and caused the ship to start lifting off the platform. "Hang on back there, you're going to start to feel some feeling some G's."

 _"Some what?"_ Was all she managed to say before being shoved to the rear of the ship from the sudden acceleration. There wasn't much to hold onto back there so she was left to endure the motion sickness as they pivoted to their desired course.

Derrick hit a few buttons as he unbuckled from his seat before standing up to check on his passenger. "Alright, artificial gravity is online. How are you feeling princess?" He said mockingly, finding her discomfort amusing.

The swarm queen was visibly nauseous from the ride. _"Don't call me princess, and if Niadra didn't approve of this quest then I would have killed you for the insult."_

"Ah, don't be such a bitch, you'll get used to it." He said while going through a small freeze in the corner to grab some ice in a glass. "I would also get comfortable if I were you because we have about ten hours until we can get into position."

 _"There is no possible position that I can get into without hitting the ceiling. You Terrans make the smallest aircraft imaginable."_ She continued trying to find a spot that was tolerable.

His bottle of whiskey was starting to run low, something that would need to be replaced if he made it to his next pit stops out near Mar Sara. Even so, he poured himself a small glass and pulled up a chair near Ryril, who was still adjusting himself. "I have a question."

 _"I don't care."_ She barked.

"What did Niadra mean when she said that I was like the queen?" Taking a sip from the glass he waited for an answer, ignoring her complaint.

Ryril stayed silent and closed her eyes in defiance against her situation. She would always follow the command of her broodmother who gave her life from one of the hatcheries that she made inside of the concurred Protoss vessel. Even though she didn't agree with Niadra, there must have been wisdom behind her decision. Neither of them has ever seen a Terran before but they knew that the Zerg has been at war with them for years without having any signs of peace. And yet she was sent to work with one and didn't even sense the slightest thought of betrayal from the broodmother.

The amount of hope that Niadra gave to the ghost was astonishing to her despite the protest she made and was forced to promise to Niadra that she wouldn't harm Derrick. She started to regret that decision once he threw the first ice cube at her head to get her attention.

"Are you still ignoring me? I've asked you about five times now and you haven't even flinched." He was doing a test. Either he was testing what his limits were or her reaction to him while taking the occasional sip from his glass.

Ryril opened her eyes and growled at him _. "What do you want?"_

"What did Niadra mean when she said that I was like the queen?"

She took a deep breath that reeked of annoyance and answered the question. " _She said that you were like the queen of blades in the aspect that you were able to have limited control over some of the lesser Zerg warriors, but they were starved and weak. Outcastes, so that Niadra could save energy. Don't be too proud of yourself."_ Closing her eyes again, she went back to trying to sleep so she didn't have to listen to Derrick.

Then he threw another ice cube from his glass after taking another drink.

"Don't pretend to sleep, I'm not done." He was having fun seeing what he could get away with and was counting how many ice cubes it took to make her snap. While in the Protoss ship her heard Niadra tell Ryril not to touch him unless he tried to kill or abandon her so he knew that he was safe for now. "So how am I supposed to keep control over them?"

Her eyes were still closed when she responded, _"You can't control them only the queen of blades commands us."_

"But Niadra said that Kerrigan abandoned her, so how am I supposed to rely on you whatever we'll have when this thing kicks off." He then pointed to the back where the crate was strapped down. "I mean I have to have some kind of practice when those guys hatch and we don't have much time until then."

 _"You won't need practice because I will give them direction, not you. The Zerg lead by force of will, and yours is not enough to lead us."_

The rest of the glass was emptied will one last sip. Derrick set it down by his chair and leaned forward while resting his elbows on his knees. "Are you willing to fail this and let Niadra die?"

Her eyes slowly opened and glared at him. _"You're not thinking of sabotaging this, are you? Do I need to remind you why I'm here?"_

Derrick's tone became serious for the first time since they started talking, "I know, to kill me if I try anything. And you know why I'm here right?"

 _"You're here to get a larger ship and nothing else."_

"Correct, and how do you expect me to do that? Don't expect the crew to just surrender as soon as we get onboard. We have to force their hand by showing them that giving in is the only way to survive, and we need some of them to survive so that we can actually keep whatever ship we get running properly."

 _"That doesn't explain why you need to control the Zerg."_

"Do you know how to temporarily disable an engine so that It can be turned on later? Or how about disabling hydraulic lines and airflow to certain areas while keeping it online in others? I should also mention that it's not going to be just a few people onboard, we can expect at least thirty and I need to coordinate very specific things so that they happen in a certain order."

She became more irritated every time she responded, _"Then tell me what needs to be done and it will."_

"Do you even know what a hydraulic line is, what it's used for or even what it looks like?"

 _"Then point it out when you see it."_

"I can't do that for every single thing that needs to be done. And just as I said before, how can I rely on you? You haven't even seen the inside of these things and the layout and design are completely different than how the Protoss have theirs."

Ryril paused to think a moment, trying to make an excuse to keep him from needing to have any amount of control but couldn't think of anything that wouldn't discourage him from trying, _"I don't want you to have any control over us, but I understand why you need it."_

"Does that mean that you'll show me how to do it?" He asked while leaning forward even more in his chair. Watching his plan coming together.

Again she paused before answering, " _Fine, but what I'll teach you won't work on very large numbers. All that it really is, is going into one of our minds and projecting influence over them."_ Her tone lowered into a very threatening voice, _"I will show you with my mind but be warned, if you try anything while you're inside I will slowly rip apart your limbs one by one and watch you bleed and scream to death."_

Ryril spent the next thirty minutes guiding him around her mind and showing him the complexity of a Zerg mind. To him it was similar to the coding of a computer in the sense of relaying information back and forth, she had to simulate with the larvae that were inside of the crate in the corner and how commands were sent and received.

After the short practice, they came to a compromise, Ryril would handle the bulk of the Zerg once the larvae hatched but would give Derrick troops as needed.

He noticed that Ryril wasn't constantly shifting around or acting hostile towards him after a few more hours of talking. She asked about his past with genuine interest about how humans lived outside of the battlefield. He told her all about what he did once he left the Raiders and how he started up his clinic.

She asked about the different planets that were out there in the galaxy and told him how much she hated being trapped on the Protoss vessel which Derrick understood with his experience being stuck in space for months at a time, although it wasn't as bad as the Zerg's dilemma.

They had about six hours until they arrived along Trafficker's lane as it was called. Wanting to have some time to rest, Derrick decided to take his evening shower and to get some sleep in the pilot's chair in case if anything happened.

It didn't take long for Ryril to fall asleep in the back of the ship now that her motion sickness had finally pasted and snored softly as Derrick dried his hair from the cold shower.

He still wore his ghost suit and had his rifle next to as he started to nod off to the sound of jazz music playing from the radio and drifted off into a dreamless sleep for the next few hours.

It was the calm before the storm onboard the Caduceus as the crew slept through the rest of their flight, the only sounds that could be heard were coming from the engines, the soft breathing from the sleeping swarm queen, and the quiet tapping of the larvae from inside of the crate.

After five hours of uneventful rest, Derrick's alarm clock went off with the soft tone of a bell followed by the music that he left on while he slept. It was another forty-five minutes until they arrived but it could be another couple of hours until a pirate vessel spotted them on radar and tried to commandeer them.

He looked back into the cargo hold to check on Ryril who was still sleeping. His back was sore from sleeping in the chair as he stood up to stretch himself out, focusing mainly on the legs and lower back. They were chronic issues that he's dealt with for many years like so many other humans. Anti-inflammatory medication was a necessity for him when it came to the pain every morning. After taking his meds with water and a small snack he started to do another check on his gear just to make sure that everything was working alright.

This included a short ranged rifle, wire cutters, two small explosive charges that were only large enough to blow a lock off a door, his cutting torch, and other small items that he kept inside of a backpack that he would take with him.

Time went by quickly and soon enough the ship slowly came to stop and started drifting through space. It was at this time that Derrick used the onboard distress signal to send out an S.O.S to anyone remotely close to them so they could look like an easy target to steal a dropship. Because of the area, it was very unlikely that a Dominion ship would pick up their trail, unlike any pirate ship that actively searches for signals like these.

The radar onboard wasn't picking up any contacts within its limited range which didn't surprise him at all. It just blinked yellow every few seconds while doing its continuous scan for any object, not just vessels that fly by. He knew that this part would likely take longer than the flight to get here; after all, fishing takes patience, as his dad used to tell him when he was young.

A full eighteen hours passed by without even the slightest ping from the radar. The time went by slowly for both of them without any way to speed it up. Most of it was spent either sleeping, using his small dart board, or just pacing around the room.

Eventually, the radar started to ping while he was eating some toast. Derrick ran to the front while he started shouting at Ryril to wake her up.

The computer didn't give him nearly as much of a warning as it did for the Protoss. Outside was a vessel about three hundred yards long and was speeding towards them. Being an old dominion dropship, no pirate would give up the chance to capture, sell, use or even keep one as a trophy.

Ryril shot her head upright and started crawling as far to the front of the ship as possible. _"Is it time?"_

"Yeah looks like they took the bait so get ready because they'll probably try to hook us with harpoons. It's something that you'll see them do out here to keep us tethered to them while they reel us onboard their ship."

 _"How many Terrans are in there?"_

"For something that size I guess around seventy to eighty, we won't be fighting all of them though. A good amount will be either inside of the engine room or up on the bridge." He did one final check on his equipment and put on his mask and connections to the suit while Ryril started to move to the back of the ship.

A large jolt shook them both and forced Derrick to the ground. They were being pulled into the enemy through space.

Derrick ran back to the cargo hatch and checked the flashbang traps that he set up earlier. There were four flashbangs set up on one of the frames and the pins were tied around hooks set on the other frame. Because his ship's hatch was designed to open outwards as soon as they opened the pins would be pulled and the explosives would be exposed to the enemy. Ryril was instructed to close her eyes and cover her ears when the doors opened.

They were less than fifty yards away from the hangar of the enemy.

Derrick and Ryril pushed the crate to the middle of the large doors to give themselves cover.

Twenty yards.

Derrick loaded his rifle and pistol.

The hull of the Caduceus pierced the atmospheric barrier of the pirate vessel and started to scrape alongside the ground.

Ryril crouched down behind the crate which only shielded about half of her body. Derrick flipped the safety off on a shotgun he slung onto his back then activated his cloak before hitting an emergency release on the doors, causing them to fly open.

The pins were pulled from their homes with an audible click, activating the three-second timer on them. In this brief time frame, Derrick ran out the side of the opening to get a flanking position of the side of his ship without getting shot at. Although his cloaking field made him hard to spot, his body still made a shimmer that could be spotted with a keen eye.

Only a few shots went off from the few pirates that were inside of the cramped hangar before the flash bangs went off with a loud crack and temporarily stunned most of them. In that brief moment, Derrick was able to get a good look at how many they were going up against.

There were about seven of them, all wielding a variety of different weapons but only two of them were wearing CMC armor. Derrick brought his rifle up and started to lay down suppressive fire to either force them to take cover or draw their attention so that Ryril could get out of the ship to join the fight.

Several crates were set up in a half circle by the enemy which left some of them exposed to Derrick's fire. After quickly killing two of them he ran over to take over their cover but alerted them to his gunshots.

Bullets raced pass him as he dove down, Ryril used this moment to make her move. She used the container full of the creep and larvae as a mobile shield and pushed it out in front of her until she was outside of the ship.

Closing the distance between her first victim, one of the two wearing the CMC armor. She knocked the weapon out of his hands and impaled him several times with the long, hooked appendages that came out of her back, leaving the body in bloody chunks of metal.

Ryril and Derrick were able to hit them on both sides now and worked their way around the boxes and started to pick them off one by one until they came to the last one whom dropped their weapon and surrendered.

"Okay, please stop!" He pleaded while throwing his hands up in front while backing away from the Zerg queen.

He made several more attempts to save his life before trying to a futile attempt at running away. Ryril stopped him by hooking one of his legs with her long claw in the middle of his calf muscle and dragging him towards her. Without mercy she began to dig into him, starting at the stomach and working her way up into the chest.

Derrick could see her intentions in her mind. She knew that it wasn't a clean kill, she just wanted to have fun with it and to see how much a human could take before they finally stopped screaming.

Seeing her tear into the man brought up more memories of battles that he was in against the Zerg and seeing how ruthless they were on the battlefield. He didn't want any of it coming from a team he's leading.

"Ryril cut that shit out!" He demanded while walking up to her and deactivating his cloaking field. Ryril stopped and turned her head towards him while still holding an unrecognizable organ in her hand. Derrick pulled out his sidearm and finished off her kill for her with three shots to the head and chest.

Her anger was visible when he took her fun away. _"I wasn't finished with that yet."_

"Yeah? Well, you are now, and I don't want to see that disgusting act again from you."

 _"You know nothing of the Zerg! You don't know the rush we get from slaying a foe in battle so I wouldn't waste your breath on one so worthless."_

They both locked eyes and their minds linked through their psionic abilities. Derrick pushed himself against her mind asserting his dominance in this situation and was met with the same resistance from her, neither of them gaining any mental ground on the other.

 _"You are wasting time, more are surely on their way,"_ Ryril said after breaking the connection and making her way over to their crate. _"Help me open this."_

Derrick's furious expression was hidden behind his mask while he made his way over to her. He picked up a crowbar that he had inside of his dropship and started to help her pry it open. After a few quick tugs, the side came open and spilled out its contents of larvae and creep to sustain them.

 _"There's not enough creep for all of them to grow."_

"Aren't queens able to make creep tumors to help it grow?"

 _"If we were on a planet then yes. The creep cant dig its way into the ground to pull nutrients from soil to sustain its self on a ship. If we want warriors then we need the creep to digest some of these bodies as a resource."_

Derrick looked around at the dead pirates and quickly came to a decision. "Alright, how much time do you need?"

 _"I can get six zergling out in about ten minutes but I need you to bring me the bodies."_ Ryril started the process by commanding three of the larvae to form a cocoon around itself then went over to Derrick to help bring a few of the dead humans over to the creep.

They laid the corpses down on top of the purple substance and Derrick took a second to see how it happened. The creep stuck onto the skin and muscle and started to break down the flesh into a liquid form, slightly expanding the spread of the creep.

The process sickened him to his stomach. After moving only two of the bodies he reloaded his weapons and started making his way to the only door out of the hangar. "I'm going to buy you some time, just reinforce me as the Zerg hatch."

 _"I will also make a few drones to collect the dead. I will also stay back to protect the larvae."_

Derrick gave her a thumbs up before reactivating his cloak at the large door. 'This is where the fun begins.'

 **I also wanted to say two last things: first being that I'm looking for a beta reader to help with adding more detail into my chapters and to give in-depth feedback before I post these. And the second is if anyone would like to play Starcraft 2 then PM me and I'll give you my friend code for my profile to play games.**


	4. Chapter 4

_'I'm sending more zerglings to you now.'_ Ryril mentally told Derrick through the psionic connection that they established between each other. Eight zerglings burst from their eggs created from the larvae and ran out to join the fight with Derrick.

'Alright, they have a bit of cover down this long hallway leading to the command bridge so I'm going to need something with some range.' Derrick replied a little more than one hundred yards away from her using the same psionic link with their minds.

 _'What happened to disabling their engines?'_

'I got confused about the layout of this ship, I have a general idea of where to go to get to the main engine room but it's in the opposite direction of the bridge. If we head over there then it's much easier for them to cut us off from each other, so we're going to change the plan a little bit.

 _'I understand, I'll make a few roaches to assist you.'_

'If you can send a hydralisk that would be better. I don't want a bunch of lose acid destroying something important in here.'

 _'I can only make zerglings and roaches right now. And because we don't have the proper structures connected to the creep, the roaches will be very few in number.'_

'If that's the case then we can use them as a mobile shield; their armor is going to be more helpful than their acid bile.' The tone of his voice was a good indicator of how stressed he was starting to become. 'We've been firing back at each other for a little while and none of the zerglings can get through without being mowed down. I still have five over here from before and three more bringing a few bodies back to you but we'll wait for those roaches.'

Ryril looked back at the larvae and gave a mental command for three of them to start morphing into roaches. They created a space for themselves and began to secrete a mucus around them, encasing themselves into a cocoon that pulsed every few seconds and was visibly becoming larger. _'I have three morphing in now, they will be with you shortly.'_

'Sounds good, just be careful about some of these guys making it to the hangar, there are lots of different passages they can use to slip by us and get to you.'

The crew of the ship already sent multiple counterattacks against her to cut off reinforcements. It would be in the form of three or four-man teams keeping her and the new Zerg she was hatching inside of the hangar. Because of her armored carapace, she could take several sprays of gunfire without suffering major damage. It allowed her to close distances to the attackers and engage them at a close distance.

Derrick told her that it was likely that there were cameras watching her from inside of the hangar. After giving a brief description of what to look for she scanned the room and found two of them in the high corners of the area and quickly destroyed them by firing spines, a projectile that was built into queens and broodmothers, at the device used to spy on them.

The main door to the hangar opened to let the three zerglings and the bodies they dragged into the room. Ryril quickly assisted them by grabbing one by the arm while one of the zerglings dragged the corpse by the legs.

A noticeable crackling sound was coming from one of the walls behind her. All of the Zerg turned around and saw some of the steel frames start to glow bright red. Ryril had no idea what was causing the wall to act like that. The cautious part of mind made her describe what they saw to Derrick.

'Get to cover now!' He yelled into her mind.

That section of the wall exploded into the room with a bright flash, sending small shards of shrapnel in every direction. The queen and her zerglings dove behind the crates quickly enough to avoid being hit by the projectiles. Through the eyes of one of the zerglings, Ryril could see three armored figures entering the room with their guns drawn.

She recognized the marine armor of two of them but the third one was much different than the others. It stood at least three feet higher than them and it didn't carry a gun either. The arms of this Terran were massive and had what looked like small cannons for hands. The last noticeable difference was the color; the marines had a blood-red paint covering them with many dents and scratches but the large one was black from head to toe without a single flaw in the armor.

Ryril commanded the zerglings to circle around to pick off the marines, she wanted the big one for herself. Like a well-coordinated pack, her minions jumped from cover to cover, forcing the Terrans to change the direction of their fire so that while one zergling was distracting them another would be able to get closer.

The large black armored Terran just followed the zerglings with its eyes, not shooting at them or commanding the marines. He was following the pattern that the Zerg were making and waiting for the right moment.

Just before one of the zerglings leaped from behind a crate, the Terran brought up his hand and fired an impact grenade from the cannon-like arm into the predicted spot. The projectile collided into the hind legs of the Zerg and caused a small explosion that took out one of its legs along with half of its hip.

The zergling was thrown to the ground from the impact and screeched in agony. It tried to crawl away but was finished off by the two marines gunning it down in a hail of bullets.

While not ideal, its death allowed the other two to come around and tackle one of the marines and bring the others attention to them. As the one marine was taken to the ground, one of the zerglings leaped off of it and pounced the other.

The large Terran spun around and was about to fire at the zerglings but then spun back around after seeing Ryril charge him in the corner of his eye. His first shot narrowly missed the enraged Zerg as they collided into a boxing match of claw and steel.

Ryril's plan was to offset the Terran's balance with as many rapid strikes as she could but her opponent was able to block her attacks with its large mechanical arms and was even able to push her back. It didn't stop her aggression though, even when it had the chance to fire a grenade at her chest. She was much more heavily armored than the zerglings. Even though the explosion was very painful she was still able to close the distance between them with her quick pacing.

This time she brought one of her clawed-appendages from above and struck the Terran in the head plate. The strike didn't puncture the armor but it left a small dent and the impact to the head knocked her opponent off balance but was still standing. Another strike brought him down to one knee.

Ryril raised her claw high into the air for a finishing blow but right before she swung she felt the life of one of her zerglings expire. She looked over to her right and saw the second marine that her zerglings attacked throw it's bullet-riddled, lifeless body off of him before bringing his gun up to kill the second zergling that was clawing away at his fellow marine.

In the brief moment that her attention was taken away, the Terran in front of her was able to bring his left arm up and fire into her chest again. Her armor wasn't as effective as it was before; some of her carapace cracked from the impact and blood started to seep out of her.

The human then brought up his right arm and fired into one of the upper joints on her most forward left leg, cracking the bone and tearing some of the flesh away. The next one completely severed it from her body.

The pain raced through her entire body and for the first time in her short life she started to panic and fear for her life. She reached her mind out and tried to search for Niadra to give her comfort but only felt the emptiness of space and felt alone for the first time as well.

The black-armored human was able to stand up with the assistance of the marine. After helping his leader, the marine ran over to Ryril and brought his gun up to align the barrel to her head. Ryril was in too much pain to try to react and save her life; all she was able to do was stare into the face shield of the marine that was about to kill her.

"Stop!" The larger human commanded. "You kill the eggs before they hatch, I'm going to kill this bitch."

Lowering his gun, the marine replied, "Yes captain." The human then ran over to her unborn children and started to fire into one of the eggs.

The queen watched as the bullets collided with the egg and after a few quick burst of lead entered into the cocoon and killed the roach inside. She could feel the child's pain more so than her own and with one last boost of strength she brought her head up to fire a spine into the marine to save the other eggs.

"Not so fast there!" The human said as his arm connected with the right side of her head, breaking and severing the outer mandible from her jaw. He brought his arm underneath her neck and raised her head so that he could stare into her eyes after lifting his face shield, exposing his head. "When done with that fucking ghost, I'm going to mount your head in my wardroom."

The human brought his other arm up and slammed it into her already broken and bleeding chest, causing Ryril to collapse to the ground. She looked into the eyes of her killer and accepted her fate.

She felt a sudden jolt through her body. A zergling collided with both of them and took down her opponent before he was able to deliver the finishing blow. Four more zerglings passed her and helped tackle the human to the ground. This got the attention of the marine, he turned his gun to help the other Terran but was also taken to the ground by three other zerglings.

A familiar presence was pushing against her mind, it was Derrick, 'I sent the Zerglings back when I saw you were in trouble. Didn't expect that they would have a marauder suit onboard.'

 _'Is that what I was fighting, a marauder?'_ Ryril replied with a relieved voice.

'Yeah, they have heavy armor and hit hard but when by themselves, they can be taken down by zerglings pretty quickly.'

Ryril looked at her zerglings and saw it firsthand. The marauder wasn't able to raise it's face shield and had to use one of his arms to protect his face from the claws and teeth.

Summoning her strength, Ryril was able to stand up on her remaining legs. _iStop.'_ She commanded her minions. The zerglings stopped attacking the marauder and hopped off of him but some of them kept hold of his arms and kept them in place. "This one belongs to me." Placing one leg in front of the other, she stumbled towards the Terran even tripping a few times because of the missing leg.

Blood was covering one of the marauder's eyes but he still kept them open as he watched the queen standing in front of him. Ryril took her blood covered hand and hooked it inside the suit by his head and kept his armor still. With one swift motion, she raised one of her long claws from her back and embedded it into the human's skull.

The marauder shook violently inside his suit as the claw dug itself deeper into his body. Blood started to pour from his mouth and pool inside of the suit and after a few seconds of convulsing, his body stiffened and fell to the ground.

Satisfied that the threat was finally vanquished, Ryril took a moment to calm herself. All of the remaining zerglings formed a circle around her in a defensive posture to protect their leader in case if another threat revealed itself.

Blood still flowed out of her leg and chest plate. She would have to focus her regeneration on those areas to keep herself alive.

The roach eggs started to pulse violently. The membrane surrounding them started to grow thin before bursting open, freeing the two roaches from their natural prison and into the world. Both of them resembled turtles in their appearance, they had dome-like shells with spikes of their backs and their heads protruded out of the front. That was where the similarities ended, they had six legs that kept them low to the ground along with two arms on their shells that extended out into blades.

Snapping their jaws at the air in anticipation, they took off down the hallway to Derrick by Ryril's command. After allowing herself a moment to lower her body to the ground she contacted Derrick, "The roaches are done, I'm sending them to you right now."

'Sounds good, how are you holding up?'

 _"The marauder almost killed me, I have to stay back and heal."_

'Do you need me to come back?'

 _"Us queens can heal ourselves, just take the ship."_

'I killed another two and their starting to slow down but I'll still need to wait for the roaches to make progress. Just leave a few of the zergling to keep you safe and send the rest my way.'

Ryril gave the silent command and half of the zerglings chased after the roaches.

* * *

The new Zerg warriors reached the ghost within three minutes of being sent out. Derrick was relieved to see them and with their arrival, he was finally able to push through the passageway. Using the training that Ryril gave him, he searched through the minds of the roaches. Their minds were unique to the zerglings but still had the same structure. Focusing on the order that he wanted to be carried out, he pressed it onto the Zerg in front of him.

The roaches pushed through the zerglings and stood side by side then started a slow march through the enemies' fire. Derrick crouched down behind them and ordered the nine zerglings he had left to do the same. Bullets ricocheted off of the armor of the roaches and into the walls and ceiling.

Zergling hide and claws surrounded him on all sides, tightly packed but still moving in unison with the roaches. The roaches out in front used their bladed arms to cover their eyes from getting hit as they reached the end. Zerglings jumped across the backs of their living shields and pounced onto the enemy, two of them dying in the process.

Pushing his way through the roaches, he saw that his Zerg had already killed the pirates. Three Terran bodies were found ripped apart by the relentless zerglings who were already eagerly waiting for Derrick to give them the command to press on.

Placed about fifteen feet in front of him was the door leading to the bridge, on the wall to its left was another door which would traditionally lead into the captain's quarters and directly opposite was another that probably belonged to the second-in-command. He was going to enjoy having a larger room to himself.

The two roaches lined up in front of the group again to serve as a shield. Zerglings lined up behind them in a tight semi-circle to defend their leader and to pounce on the enemy if needed. Because this was the bridge Derrick ordered the Zerg not to attack unless if they were attacked first. If some of the more vital equipment was destroyed then it could mean that they would spend several days trying to fix it. The leaders of this ship would also likely be inside and he would need to use them in order for the rest of the pirates scattered throughout the ship to surrender.

It was locked. Derrick pulled out a small device and placed it on the center lock, fastened it in place, pulled a metal pin and lowered a small lever that it was keeping in place. It was a breaching device that was used on Ryril but was designed to break locks on doors, not crumble thick walls.

The device went off three seconds after he ducked down behind the roaches. A loud pop echoed throughout the area and left a charred hole where the explosive used to be, its remains smoking on the floor.

Roach blades pried through the door and forced it open in one swift motion. Revealing themselves to the enemy but didn't receive the bullet fueled welcome they were used to. Instead, they entered a room full of human that were astonished to see Zerg on their ship and being lead by a human. Thirteen pirates occupied the bridge and its consoles.

 _'More zerglings are ready for you.'_ Ryril informed Derrick through their mental connection.

'Keep them with you for now. If going to give as many of these guys a chance to live before we start searching the rest of the ship.'

Derrick cleared his throat before addressing the crew, "This is how it's going to go: this is my ship now and you are now my crew. Obey my commands and I can guarantee that neither myself or the Zerg here will harm you; go against us and we will not show mercy. Whoever is in charge is going to take a trip with me to the engine room and the armory which I'm sure that has more of your men inside. "

Expressions varied between the crew from looks of despair and hopelessness from the ones hiding in the back to the enraged men that stood before him. Derrick's eyes locked with one of them who stood a full head higher than him with a neatly trimmed beard that connected his sideburns. The man stood in between him and the rest of the crew, a sense of authority loomed over him.

"I'm guessing that you're the Captain." Derrick challenged with a slightly muffled voice from his mask.

The man spat at the ground in front of Derrick, missing his foot by inches. "I'm the first mate. Your queen killed our Captain, you've killed our best raiders and for what? Some broken scavenger out in the middle of nowhere? Did these Zerg run out of children to feed on or is this some kind of Dominion experiment?"

"What I'm doing out here is none of your concern; I needed your ship but I had to kill a few of the meaningless human life in the galaxy to do take it. You and all these ships out here take over any vessel within three systems of here and kill, rape, or make slaves of anyone in them and bid on their ships."

The pirate took a step forward towards Derrick causing the roaches to do the same with a low growl to escape deep within their throats. "This is our ship and we would rather die than see it taken from someone like you. I would bet that you're infested underneath that suit."

With that comment, Derrick raised his gun at the man's chest. "I'm giving you one chance to contact the rest of the crew onboard and tell them to surrender."

"Are you deaf? We don't deny the lives we live, but we live them as men, free from the boot of the Confederacy than the United Earth Directorate and now the Dominion. And we will never bow to anyone ever again!"

"So be it."

Two zerglings advanced towards the man and made quick work of him after knocking the human to the ground. He struggled very little under the weight of the small Zerg and the jaws that clamped around his windpipe.

"Anybody else not want to be a part of the crew?" He didn't need to ask to know their answer. "I thought so. Now I need two volunteers to go around and gather the rest your men anybody not on the main deck in fifteen minutes with be hunted down and killed and I also want a complete headcount."

Only a few seconds went by before Derrick had his volunteers. He took a roach and three zerglings with him, leaving the rest on the bridge until they got a firm grip on the situation and began their sweep of the ship for crew members.

* * *

Ryril was told to stop making more Zerg. They started out with fifty larvae and were down to eighteen left. Throughout the day four of them were made into roaches and twenty-eight of them were made into sets of zerglings. Of the fifty-six zerglings that were hatched only thirty-six remained along with all of the roaches.

From the moment the doors to their dropship opened to when Derrick gain control over all of the ship's crew took fourteen hours. After clearing the ship the total count came to forty-two members were left alive. It took him several hours to search the ship for weapons as well and to either lock them away from the crew or take parts away from them to make their weapons completely inoperable.

Derrick told her that in one of the cargo holds he was able to find a substantial amount of minerals which ships like these would use as currency rather than traceable credits. This brought some relief to her because Niadra would be able to convert it into its original state of biomass and use that to nourish the Zerg on the Protoss ship.

She collected the remaining larvae and swept the remaining creep back into the crate they brought them in. The life-threatening wounds that she had were healed but it took all of her energy to do so. Because of this, she was only able to clot her leg where it was severed and was still bleeding from where she lost her right mandible. Perhaps in time she could grow her leg back but until then she knew that it would be difficult to fight alongside her fellow Zerg.

A slight vibration started throughout the ship as the engines came back online. A few minutes later Derrick came through the hole in the wall that was made from the marauder. She rose on her remaining five legs at his presence, trying to maintain some sense of dominance to the Terran that saved her life with the forces he sent back to help her.

The ghost approached her and inspected her face and leg. "Are you ok?" He asked.

 _"I will live, I just need some more time for the hole on my face to close."_

"I can take care of that, just wait right there." Derrick walked back onto the ramp leading up to his dropship and started grabbing some supplies from cabinets and drawers and them all into a blue sheet. When he came back he set the cloth sheet down on a box that was waist high and unrolled it.

Laid out were gloves, alcohol pads, water, two syringes, scissors, forceps, suture material, and a tube and bottle of liquid that was unfamiliar to Ryril.

 _"What are you doing?"_

He removed the gloves to his armor and put on the new gloves after cleaning his hands. "I'm going to close the laceration on the side of your head and you don't have a say in it, now come over here and crouch down so that I have a better angle to work on it."

Ryril reluctantly lowered herself and turned her head to the side. She kept a watchful eye on him as he started cleaning the area with the water.

Next, he filled one of the syringes with the liquid from the bottle and brought the needle to her face. "Ok you're going to feel a little poke and a burn but it should be numb afterward."

 _"What is that?"_ She asked as the needle pierced the flesh on the inside of the open flesh followed by the burning sensation he warned her about.

"It's called lidocaine and it's a numbing agent." He removed the needle and recapped it while setting it back down with the other supplies.

 _"How long until we get back to Niadra?"_

"Well it took us about ten hours to get here and guessing how much the Protoss ship had been drifting, I would say about six hours since well be moving much faster in this."

They continued to talk to her while he worked. He explained how he was able to convince the crew to work with them and that he intended to keep his word about not harming them as long as they followed his orders.

After he was done suturing her face they spent the next couple of hours talking about different what the next step was. Ryril was adamant about killing the rest of the crew after they found a planet and allowing Derrick leave in his ship as was promised. It took a little bit of convincing to change her train of thought and she agreed to wait until after speaking with Niadra.

After a few hours, they were starting their approach on the Protoss ship where Niadra was still trapped. The plan was for Derrick and Ryril to use the dropship to ferry the rest of the Zerg off of the ship while leaving their forces with the rest of the Terrans just in case they tried to run.

A very worried expression started to take form over Ryril as they got closer. _"Something's wrong."_ She stated to Derrick.

"What's going on?"

" _It's Niadra, she's not answering me."_

"What do you mean?" He replied in a very confused voice.

Ryril kept silent and extended her mind out to the Zerg still with Niadra. She kept searching their minds and seeing through their eyes but was unable to find her. She commanded them to go to her chambers and see what was going on. After a few seconds, one of them made it to the charred corpse of the broodmother.

Fury poured throughout her body as she ran to the dropship and tried to pry open the doors _. "We have to get onboard now!"_

"Are you going to tell me what's happening? At least let me open the hatch."

The door was barely halfway opened before she started crawling inside. _"We have to go now!"_

"Not until you tell me what the fuck is going on Ryril. I'm not going in there blind."

 _"A Protoss killed Niadra. One of them is still alive."_

 **One more main character to introduce, can you guess what type of Protoss warrior it is? After the next chapter the crossover will really start to pick up with them landing in Westeros.**


	5. Chapter 5

**No, I'm not done with this story. Sorry about the long wait, I've been in the process of moving out of my apartment, (also a legal battle with my landlord) and into a new home so these updates should come sooner. I've also been doing a lot of story planning, re-writing drafts, proofreading and other stuff like that so keep an eye out on the chapter progress that I keep up to date on my profile. Now that's out of the way, I hope you enjoy the new characters I promised.**

The sound of Ryril running across the metal floor echoed throughout the halls of the Protoss ship as she raced her way towards Niadra's chamber. Derrick had to run to keep pace with her large strides, the feeling of the gun slung around him hitting his back every other step was starting to become painful.

They only had three zerglings following them, the rest of the brood stayed on the captured Terran vessel along with a few of them pushing his medical crates back onto his ship with the help of one of the pirates. With their mission complete all they had to do was transport the remaining Zerg to the vessel and leave but Derrick didn't sense many left onboard.

The five of them came across the corpse of a freshly killed zergling. Unlike the others onboard, this one had three smoking holes in its head and torso. Ryril lowered herself down and inspected the body, their own zerglings sniffing their dead family member. _"We killed them all! How is one still alive?"_ Ryril was nearly shouting in anger at the impossibility that laid before her.

"I've never seen a Protoss weapon do this before. Where any of them using anything like this?"

 _"I don't know, I wasn't alive when Niadra attacked."_

"Well, how are we going to find this Protoss? I'm not sure how long we want to stay over here away from the crew." Derrick took his rifle off his back and started to pace around either side of the group, keep an eye out for the enemy.

Ryril closed her eyes and retreated into her thoughts, trying to come up with a plan. The Protoss could be anywhere and they had no way to track its movement. They couldn't split up to search otherwise they could be picked off and she couldn't use the other Zerg onboard because they were too weak at the moment. Derrick's pacing was the only sound resonating through the ship even though he was light on his feet. The constant tapping sound, like everything Derrick did, was starting to annoy her and she started to be able to track his movement just by the sound of his boots. This gave her an idea.

She lifted herself up and started reaching out with her mind to the other Zerg wandering around and took control of their minds. While they couldn't help them by running throughout all the different areas, they could still be some use to her. Ryril gave them the command to start clawing at their surroundings and make as much noise as possible. If the Protoss was searching for more of the brood to kill then they should be able to hear her minions, all she had to do was sense the death of one of them and head in that direction.

Derrick noticed the three zerglings next to him start raking their claws across the ground creating a screeching sound similar to dragging fingernails along a blackboard. "What are you doing?" He shouted at Ryril while covering his ears from the sound.

 _'My brood will attract the Protoss, as soon as one of the minions see them then we can launch a surprise attack.'_

"Then have these ones stop!" He shouted. "If we want to do a surprise attack then why are you giving away our position!? We don't know how many of them there are!"

The thought never crossed her mind. In a panic, she forced all the nearby Zerg to stop.

The hallways went silent again as the zerglings steeped back in line. "I'm going to leave it at this: Think before you act because you could have gotten us killed."

 _"We'll discuss it later."_ She replied, not wanting to fight him at the moment. Searching the hive mind, it didn't take long to notice that another Zerg fell to the Protoss not too far from them.

"You felt it too?" Derrick said.

 _"They're this way."_

The queen started the pace followed by the rest of their party down the darkened hallway while keeping a careful eye out for the Protoss. Derrick kept his finger indexed beside his trigger at the ready and the zerglings covered the back of their small formation and were ready to charge to the front at the first sign of danger.

It didn't take them very long to find the fresh corpse, a hydralisk with the same burn marks as the zergling they found earlier, except it also had several deep cuts from psi blades that Derrick instantly recognized.

"They have zealots, well, at least one of them I hope." Zealots were the one Protoss infantry that he feared the most. Especially when he would be fighting with only a few others since they could easily be overpowered. "We need to just get out of here, I don't think that we can take a fight like this."

 _"And run from the Protoss? It's no wonder you Terrans have been losing the war, you're all cowards that run at the first sign of danger. You are not fit to command anyone! Especially the swarm!"_ Hate and frustration spilled from her voice with each passing word as she spoke her thoughts.

Derrick wasn't going to take it from Ryril anymore and used the butt of his rifle as a club and drove it across the uninjured side of her face. The zerglings immediately hissed and started to run towards him. He drove his mind into theirs and forced them to keep their distance.

"This has gone on long enough! If you want to get yourself killed then keep doing what you're doing, running in blindly, throwing away your own forces, and not giving a damn when you put yourself into a bad situation."

Ryril shook off the strike and stood up to her full height and locked eyes at him with a death stare. _"Kill him now."_

The zerglings did not obey. Instead, they paced around and shifted their head at both of their masters, unsure of who to obey. While Ryril had a natural connection with the swarm, Derrick was a more powerful psionic and she thought him how to link with the hive mind.

She was frustrated upon realizing that this was her own doing.

"Don't do this Ryril." He pleaded with his sights aimed at her. Ryril lowered herself and positioned her legs to launch herself at Derrick and deliver a swift killing blow.

A blue glow ignited barely thirty feet from them in the passageway. Standing in front of them were two zealots and another class of Protoss warrior that neither of them had ever seen. The odd one stood slightly lower than the zealots but it had a large plate suspended on its back and was holding some type of weapon with its left arm. The three of them were standing side by side with the zealots standing on the sides.

Derrick swung his gun around and started firing at the nearest zealot while Ryril and the zerglings charged the Protoss.

Their enemy responded in kind. The zealots charged forward and immediately cut through one of the three zerglings. Another one of the zerglings leaped onto the backs of the zealot Derrick was shooting at and broke through its shields and started to claw at the armor.

There was a burst of blue light as the third Protoss fired its weapon at the zergling and cut through the unarmored Zerg. Its corpse fell to the ground with a muffled crash.

Derrick was surprised to see his zergling fall so easily but even more so when he noticed his own anger start to rise at the death of a creature he would have otherwise celebrated. He's only ever had this feeling when seeing his fellow Terrans die on the battlefield, but these were his warriors now.

Ryril made quick work of the zealot they had wounded with the help of another zergling, leaving the last to foolishly charge at the one the just killed its partner with a single shot. This one met the same fate, the first shot took out its front leg and most of its chest and even exposed the lower lobe of a lung, the second shot went into the exposed area.

The remaining zealot was forced out of the way and into a wall by Ryril for Derrick to take care of while she charged the other Protoss. She relied on her armor plating covering her front for protection and covered her face with her large appendages until she could get close enough.

Blue projectiles connected with her armor but did little more than heat up its surface, if several more hit the same spot it could have done damage. Ryril started to strike with her clawed appendages but the Protoss was able to absorb the blows with its shields while trying to put distance between them. Ryril continued the immense pressure with jab after jab each weakening the shield even further.

A glow emitted from the unknown plate of the Protoss's back; a blue form that looked identical to the warrior appeared and dashed toward her blindingly fast. The startled queen thrashed at the shade but all of her attacks simply passed through the illusion. This distraction allowed the Protoss to break into a full sprint away from danger and down the passage way, Ryril was in close pursuit.

With the help from the zergling, Derrick was able to defeat the remaining zealot. The Zerg minion then ran after Ryril to help chase the last Protoss while Derrick reloaded his weapon. He only had three magazines left for his rifle and a single EMP charge inside of a handheld device on his hip, plenty to finish their mission. With a loud 'click', the magazine was firmly seated inside the gun, he was about to release the bolt-carrier to chamber a bullet when he saw a blue ghostly figure coming straight towards him.

His eyes widened at the sight and hoisted up his rifle and fired three rounds into it. The figure didn't even flinch as it passed through him and kept on going. Derrick looked down at himself and patted his body to check for any wounds and was surprised to find nothing. He turned around to see the shadow turn around a corner and without looking back, he ran after it.

His footsteps echoed throughout the passage way along with the faint sound of the Zerg chasing the other Protoss far behind him. He turned around the corner and saw the shade go around another about ten yards away.

 _'It's gone.'_ Ryril spoke through their mental connection, her voice full of alarm.

Derrick slowed down his pace as he answered, 'What do you mean It's gone?'

 _'The Protoss disappeared right in front of me, It's gone without a trace and I can't find it."_

Derrick was about to turn the corner when the missing Protoss appeared and knocked him to the ground with the blunt end of its weapon. He looked up from his position, saw the Protoss pointing it's shield-shaped weapon and immediately rolled out of the way of it's fire. The blast hit the floor where he was just a few feet away from him and left a clear scorch mark on the metal. The Protoss's weapon had enough recoil so that it's user had to pause and recover from the back blast.

With the small window of time, he was able to bring up his rifle and fire short, controlled burst at the enemy. The Protoss had to use its weapon as cover to avoid too much damage to it's actual shield that was standard among all Protoss. This allowed him to get some distance from the enemy and to take cover behind a wall so he could contact Ryril.

'Hey, I found your missing Protoss.' He was trying to catch his breath after taking that hit to his side. 'It's just down the hallway that we came from an-' He stopped because the same blue figure came around the corner and stopped in front of him while bringing its arm up overhead to strike. Just before it brought its arm down a small flash went off, changing its form to the golden armored Protoss he was just fighting.

He ducked down just in time for the strike to hit the wall behind him, then dashed out into the open and brought his rifle up. In a surprising amount of speed, the Protoss brought it's weapon around to strike again. Derrick didn't have the reaction time to dodge again, instead he brought his rifle up to absorb the impact for him. The attack pushed him back and left his rifle bent in two at it's center. Derrick discarded it and equipped his EMP device then pointed it at the Protoss. The Protoss positioned it's own weapon and was too late to fire it.

The EMP impacted in the center of the Protoss's chest, disabling it's shields and weapons. The warrior hit the side of their weapon in an attempt to reactivate it to no avail.

"A clever tactic, Terran." The Protoss said in both a condescending and feminine voice, to Derricks surprise. He was able to get a better look at his opponent, her towering height over him was the largest concern, about two feet taller. "But it won't save you here."

Hand to hand combat wasn't one of Derrick's best skills, but he could hold his own. He brought up his forearms to block the first punch from the female Protoss's free hand then responded with two quick jabs that missed the target's face by a few inches. The two of them continued to trade blow for blow, neither of them getting the upper hand.

All Derrick had to do was stall until Ryril could get to him, and his opponent knew it. His enemy wanted to end the fight as quick as possible. Using the large shield-like weapon to her advantage, she was able to follow up her quick jabs with a heavier blow with it's flat surface. This was able to force him off balance, leaving him open for a heavy strike to the side of his head.

His full faced helmet protected him from a fractured skull but the sheer force of the impact caused him to become dazed and lose focus, allowing the Protoss to hit him again, sending him back to the ground. His vision became blurry and it was extremely difficult for him to focus. In a haze he could make out the Protoss run away out of sight.

Ringing started to flood his hearing as the pain started its onset and coursed throughout his body. He tucked his arms up underneath him and pushed himself to his feet, leaning on the wall to support his weight.

He could hear the claw-like footsteps from the Zerg approaching. Looking up he saw Ryril towering over him, he remembered the events that took place right before the Protoss. If she was going to kill him, now would be the time.

Instead she had the zergling grab his rifle in it's mouth and carry it while she supported Derrick's limping body against hers.

 _"If you want to get yourself killed then keep doing what you're doing, running in blindly, not giving a damn when you put yourself in a bad situation."_ She mocked using his previous statement while keeping a quick pace back to the hangar. A small smile found its way onto his face.

They proceed hastily while keeping a watchful eye out as they navigated their way throughout the ship until Ryril came to a stop outside of one of the many doors along the passageway.

"What is it?"

 _"Her chambers are down that way.'_ Ryril answered with a remorseful voice. He was reminded that she sensed Niadra's demise before they landed. _"We should keep moving."_

"We can stop if you want."

 _"No. I don't want to see what they left."_ They kept on moving without another stop until they made it back to the dropship.

When they arrived all of his crates were securely fastened inside of the ship, the pirate he assigned to help was waiting for him by the landing gear outside the bay door. When he saw that Derrick was injured he ran up to help him onboard. "What happened boss, I thought you had more Zerg with ya?" He said with an accent.

"Protoss, we took care of most of them but one of them is still around." They all boarded the dropship and secured the bay door. "Hey, do you think you can fly without getting us killed on the way back?"

"Aw shit, all ya had to do was ask. Y'all might wanna put on an extra seatbelt though, its been a little while since I've flown something like this." Derrick's headache worsened as he took his seat and strapped himself in. "I'm just fuckin with ya, I'll get us there no problem. The names Cain by the way." He said, putting his hand out.

Derrick shook his hand and introduced himself. "I'm Derrick, we'll talk later when we're back."

The engines roared to life, causing the ship to start shaking. Ryril and the few other Zerg braced themselves from the movement they still weren't accustomed to. With one smooth motion, the dropship generated the lift it needed to and steadily departed the hangar into the vastness of space with a clear line of sight to their ship.

"Ain't she a beauty," Cain stared lovingly at the large ship before them. "The old captain named her 'Hindsight' cause he was always lookin back on his mistakes and thinkin bout what he could've done different. Guess in hindsight we shouldn't've hooked you both in the first place." He laughed by himself at the joke. "Well, he was a dick anyway, getting a lot of us killed on suicide missions. So I guess it worked out alright."

Cain's laughter died down as a large blue and gold ship emerged behind the Protoss vessel. It was about thirty meters in length and to fin-like flaps that extended from bow to stern and surrounded the main body. They both stared at it before realizing what it was.

"That's a fucking warp prism! Get us onboard now, punch it!" Derrick commanded. The dropship accelerated through space as quickly as they could back to the Hindsight.

 _"What is it?"_ Ryril asked.

"It's a warp prism, the Protoss use it to carry troops from one place to another. It also connects to their warp matrix to teleport reinforcements onto a battlefield."

 _"What use is that in space?"_ She was confused about why they were panicking.

Cain answered this time. "It doesn't have to land like us to drop troops off, if it gets close enough to the ship it can warp them fuckers inside."

Derrick thought of Raynor's story about Zeratul and how he met him on the Hyperion using a similar method. "Send a message to the crew, tell them to rearm themselves and prepare for any Protoss boarding. And also tell them that the Zerg won't attack them unless they attack first." Cain nodded and started up the radio. "Ryril, did you hear that?"

 _"The swarm won't attack the Terrans."_

They were just outside of the Hindsight and met with an open hangar. After landing Derrick quickly made his way up to the bridge. The room had about ten people scrambling around trying to do several different things at once without anyone giving direction. Several of them were panicking, these men must not have much experience when it came to dealing with the Protoss.

Derrick stepped up behind one of the radar stations. "Who's in charge of navigation?" One of the crew members identified himself. "Ok, I want us to keep as far away from that warp prism as possible, we'll make a route later." His commands were clear and loud enough to be understood through all the chaos.

Some of the older men shot glances at him, hatred filled their stares. He knew that a good amount of them still saw him as their capture and he would have to slowly build their trust. He also understood that this put them under his protection and they would try to kill him if he didn't do well.

"Someone inform the crew that if they spot any Protoss and cant contact the bridge then they will run to the nearest alarm box and sound the collision alarm twice. I want around the clock armed patrols, nobody is to walk around alone and all sleeping chambers have to have at least one person awake at all times." The entire bridge was in a state of controlled chaos as his orders were carried out.

"Do you want anybody on fire watch?" Someone shouted out.

"Yes, have a fire team ready in case if anything happens, keep someone at the radar and let me know if that warp prism comes within two kilometers of us."

"Aye!" They responded with purpose.

Derrick went down below and headed back into the hangar to get a replacement weapon from his gun safe. Along the way he passed by Ryril who was watching the Terrans get inside their CMC suits. She started to follow him closely as he passed by.

 _"Can we trust these Terrans?"_ Ryril asked.

"No, but we need them." Derrick took a seat in the cramped space with a box of ammunition and started loading his magazines with a pistol on his lap. "And there's not enough fuel in the dropship to get us to the next system, so we're kind of limited on options."

Ryril pushed one of the crates out of the way to give herself more space. _"Then I'll make sure some of our minions never leave your side."_

He paused and spun one of the bullets between his fingers, "Why didn't you kill me earlier? Just going off of what I know about Zerg leaders, you don't exactly like to compete for control at the smaller levels."

There was a long pause before she answered, the magazine he was loading wasn't for any Protoss and his hand was shaking slightly as it rested on the handgun, ready to load and fire at a moment's notice.

 _"As much as I hate to admit it, you're not my enemy. Niadra was ordered to kill all Protoss and now that is my purpose, and she said that you are more similar to the queen of blades than I thought."_ Ryril lowered her head to perform something resembling a bow. _"I've seen that you are a skilled warrior and a leader and If you truly have this potential then there is much that I can learn from you. So long as you are fair, we'll follow your orders."_

Derrick took a sharp breath in and tried to calm himself but his mind wouldn't allow it. He was just given command of the deadliest race in the known universe, the race that he's spent years fighting against in countless battles. If he accepted then he would be an outcast among humans, hunted down to make sure he wouldn't become the next queen of blades.

If he didn't accept then the outcome could be even worse. Ryril could live to become a broodmother herself and lead invasions of worlds, killing millions without a second thought. At least he could lead them away from that.

"You have my word. If you'll excuse me I need to get some more equipment."

She rose and exited the dropship in a respectful manner. _"As you wish."_

A much-needed quietness fill the room for him to ease himself. His soft footsteps filled the room as he made his way to the cockpit and took a seat. To his right was a single framed photograph fixed into the metal wall.

He stared at the fall background and the two people standing beside one another and a sense of shame filled his heart. In the picture was him when he just finished his ghost training and was wearing his newly issued Crius stealth suit. With him was a girl wearing medic CMC armor, they were both smiling and hugging, clearly excited about his accomplishment. This was the same girl that died because of his loose tourniquet, he still kept her ring in a small case below the picture.

Derrick made a promise, "I won't let them become what they were."

 **We'll be seeing more of our Protoss adept very soon now that the first few chapters are done. I have a few names in mind for her but I would also like to give my readers a chance to come up with one and if I like it then I'll include it and give you credit. In the next chapter, we get to see a shift in pace as they make their way into Westeros. What alliances will they make and how long will they last? Stay tuned to find out.**


	6. Chapter 6

For two weeks the warp prism followed them without any sign of other Protoss ships. The enemy ship acted like the Komodo dragons back on Earth, biting their prey once and leaving to die from infection over days while keeping watch. Never going in to strike until it was too weak to fight back.

Everyone onboard the Hindsight was tired on the constant watch rotations in case if more Protoss showed up. Even if they did their ship wasn't equipped to fight them without any shipboard weapons besides the harpoons they used to latch onto small ships.

In-between watches the crew would either sleep, conduct regular maintenance, or hang out on the mess deck where they ate when there wasn't any work to be done, but they were always ready to get to battle stations at a moment's notice.

The Zerg mostly stayed to themselves inside of the hangar bay but would occasionally wander around the ship to stretch their legs. They always went in pairs and stayed far away from any of the Terrans walking throughout the ship.

Tension was always present if any of them crossed paths. Derrick already had to break up three confrontations that almost turned into fights between the two species. Luckily nothing else escalated beyond that.

He spent a lot of his time either on the bridge with more seasoned pirates coming up with a plan of how to escape the warp prism. They couldn't go into Dominion space otherwise they would be killed on sight because the ship was already tagged as a pirate vessel. Turning around would put them at risk of running into more Protoss ships or get them even closer to any reinforcements they might have contacted. Their only choice was to go towards the uncharted worlds of the Koprulu sector.

A choice Derrick made on purpose to keep his brood as far away from Terran space as possible, something he kept hidden from everyone. It took him two days to get his crew to agree to the plan and get them to trust his judgment. He spent some time to get to know them as well and made time to have a one-on-one conversation with all fifty-six of them. This was mostly to see if he could find out if any of them would start problems now that he was in charge. Caine was the one he had the most fun sharing stories and drinking with. He was surprisingly relaxed around him and the Zerg, and for whatever reason, he even tried to have a full conversation with Ryril about Terran machinery and how the Hindsight functioned. Caine must have been completely shit-faced at the time.

Derrick was sitting inside of his new quarters, the captain's cabin. It consisted of a single bedroom, a bathroom, and a small kitchenette to store and cook his own food if he wanted. It also was equipped with a set of monitors that displayed the same information on the bridge and constantly kept track of the warp prism.

It was just under two nautical miles away from them or about four kilometers, well away from the two kilometer warning the bridge was given but it was matching their top speed. This meant the warp prism could possibly go faster than them but it was just waiting.

He hit a dial on the monitor and it switched views to a navigational chart that showed their current route. They were just eight hours away from a habitable planet that they could land at; one that wasn't occupied by the Dominion, Protoss, or the Zerg to their knowledge. The most likely reason was that even though it could support life, scanners show that it was extremely barren when it came to resources such as minerals and vespene gas. It was also condemned as far as colonies were concerned due to the treacherous journey through hostile conditions, its isolation, and the planet's unstable seasonal patterns.

It was the perfect place to hide his brood from the galaxy.

He sat down at a small desk and ate a meal the cook made for the crew, a stew made from leftover beans, rice, and pork. Food was starting to become an issue. The cooks said that they normally have enough food for six weeks before resupplying but they were out for a while when they attacked him. They had about twelve days of food left with rationing so they would have to forage for food while they planted seeds from fruits and vegetables. Water wouldn't be an issue once they landed, the ship had purifiers they could filter water through once they found a source.

These types of thoughts clouded his mind as he tried to find a solution for every problem that was going on or that hasn't even happened yet. He knew how much stress he was putting on himself but he didn't care, it was just to pass the time without going mad from anticipation.

The empty bowl was set inside the sink with the others from previous meals. Derrick splashed a little bit of water in his face before grabbing his sidearm and a handheld radio to the bridge. His guard of four zerglings was waiting for him outside of his cabin as he walked out. He paced throughout the ship towards the hangar just to get some exercise and keep his mind clear.

Ryril was sleeping inside of his dropship next to his crates when he passed by. Something was troubling her while she slept, her arms were resting by her sides but every few seconds they would spasm slightly along with her head shaking from side to side. It could be nightmares, nervousness or even a natural function to the Zerg, either way, he didn't want to wake her up. The zergling kept stride with Derrick while he kept an eye on the rest of the crew.

Tension was still high between him and the pirates. While having his sit-downs with the crew he made note of the ones that were against him and his Zerg, he guessed a few dozen of them would likely kill him if they had the chance. The rest were either indifferent about him or were pleased that the last captain was dead. Out of all of them, Caine was his eyes and ears when it came to the overall intentions of the crew. Every day he would sit down with him and discuss how his decisions influenced everyone. He told him that the main reason that he wasn't liked was how the Zerg followed his command, several of them lost friends, family, and their homes to the Zerg.

Drowsiness started to take its toll after about an hour of walking and he decided to go back to his cabin. He let his zerglings go to do as they pleased and locked the door before starting the nightly routine of showering and getting ready for the next day. He only had about five hours to sleep before they started to make their descent into the planet's atmosphere and he intended to use it. A new bottle of his favorite whiskey that he raided from the ship's liquor locker sat on the stand next to his bed. He took a shot of the warm drink to help him get some sleep.

Derrick closed his eyes and projected his mind all around the ship, he could feel the minds, thoughts, and emotions of all the Zerg around him, something that was still very surreal to him. However, there was one mind that was unfamiliar to him and was calling to him, demanding all of his attention to one spot. Cautiously he began to track where the voice was calling him from.

It was getting louder, trying to make itself known to him. Derrick's mind was lead towards the hangar, right to Ryril. He could feel the turmoil coming from the swarm queen and the disturbance it was causing inside her mind. Whatever this being was, it was using her body as a vessel to contact him. Once he tried to make a mental connection with her, a new consciousness flooded into his own.

Derrick's eyes shot open as he immediately rolled out of the bed. He could feel this new mind force it's way into his. He began to sweat profusely while his entire body started to shake and tremble. The sound of his own heartbeat flooded his ears, all of which caused extreme nausea and shortness of breath to overcome him. As the foreign presence took over, he lost all sense of vision and hearing but was all soon replaced by his mental attacker.

Three separate images appeared in his mind. The first one showed a fleet of ships. Each of them carried several dozen men in grey armor and armed with swords and spears. The ships themselves had dark sails that had the image of a large yellow octopus sewn into them. This fleet of ships was sailing towards a beach that was occupied by several hundred of his swarm. The image faded before he could examine it further, it was soon replaced by another one that painfully forced itself into his mind.

This one was of a city surrounded with walls in the desert. He saw Ryril outside of its gates with about thirty Zerg behind her. On top of the walls were more soldiers armed with black armor with circular shields and spears. Each of them wore a helm that completely covered their heads and the back of their necks. Anyone could tell that this was a highly trained and well-disciplined army. The gate opened for Ryril, standing in the opening was a young woman with white hair and a dragon at her side.

The last vision was a small island with three dragons flying high above the castle on it. Inside the castle, there was a large room with an elevated throne made from rock. Sitting there was the same white-haired woman he saw earlier along with himself, Ryril, some of his Zerg, and several of the soldiers that belonged to this woman. Everyone had a weapon pointed at the opposition and ready to kill one another. There was also a man there that seemed out of place. He stood in between both forces, trying to keep them from fighting one another.

Derrick was given back control of his mind and gasped for air then started to violently cough. The same presence began to fill his mind once again but this time it only spoke once before disappearing.

"You have a part to play in everything." Ringing replaced the voice in his ears and lasted for several minutes before subsiding.

He didn't know what to think of what just happened. Whatever spoke to him didn't feel like any species he knew about. Reaching out with his mind once more he searched for Ryril, her mind is what linked them.

The pain returned as soon as he tried, it felt like the pressure was increasing inside his skull. He needed to give himself some time to heal. Derrick was still on the floor of his cabin, he didn't even notice the loud scraping on his door from the other side.

The scent of smoke started to fill his mouth and nose as he regained his senses. The ringing in his ears was soon drowned out by the ships alarms and a flashing orange light illuminated the area. Realizing what was happening, he staggered to his feet and made his way to the radar and examined it while keeping low to the ground to avoid inhaling the smoke.

What was displayed on the screen was a frozen image with a text in the alarm box that displayed several alarms in the order they occurred.

Audible alarm box disabled.

Closest point to contact 2km

Closest point to contact 1km

Closest point to contact .5km

Closest point to contact .1km

Main engine - Oil pressure loss detected

Main generator - Fire/Smoke alarm activated

Main Engine room - Fire/Smoke alarm activated

Aft steering - oil pressure loss detected

Claws started to rip into the door of his cabin and tear down the steel, making a hole big enough for a few zerglings to come into the room. Derrick took a quick look at the time stamp and saw that had been four hours since he went to bed. Whatever happened to him must have slowed down his perspective of time.

The zerglings tried to get him to the exit by pushing him with the flat part of their skulls. He was still in a confused state but was able to stumble to the door and open it to the hallway. The smell of smoke filled the hallway but didn't consume it, the fire teams must have already set up smoke boundaries.

Derrick sent the zerglings away to find and help others while he ran up the stairs to the bridge. There were very few of his men at their assigned post, the rest of them were still on their way he assumed. Outside the window in front of them was their new home in clear view with all it's land and seas just waiting for them, and nothing was going to stop him now.

Protective flash hoods were already set up for everyone to put on to guard them against a burst of heat but it wouldn't do much if they stayed in a hot environment. "What the hell happened?" He asked the nearest person while putting his flash hood over his head.

"It's the Protoss, they were able to sneak up on us and they took out our engine." He was standing by the fire panel which displayed the different 'zones' of the ship and the alarms that applied to those areas. "The fire team is still getting set up but they still need a few minutes."

Frustration filled his voice as he spoke to them. "How the hell were they able to do that?" They had systems in place to warn them if the Protoss would make a move. Nothing should have gotten close without them knowing.

An explosion from deep within the ship threw everyone off balance, some of them were fast enough to grab onto something while others were thrown about the bridge. Just a few seconds later all the electronics went out simultaneously, followed by the emergency backup lights filling the room with red light. A console on the right side of the bridge sparked and started to smoke, somebody quickly secured the power to it and began hitting it with several blasts from a carbon-dioxide fire extinguisher.

Luckily no one seemed hurt at first glance but he had no way of telling if people down below needed help. The men only needed a moment to stabilize themselves before getting back to their stations. They had radios to keep in contact with repair team members and according to them, it was the main generator that blew up in a ball of fire and shrapnel.

Derrick listened closely to what they were saying, he heard reports from someone believed they saw a Protoss in a heading towards their clean water tanks.

"Tell everyone not to engage it! I'm going to take care of the Protoss." Derrick commanded to the radio operator before running back down to his room. He ducked down through the same hole the zerglings made and ran to the stand-up locker in the room which kept his armor and weapons. It took him about a minute and a half to properly don the hostile environment suit and grab his submachine gun along with a pistol. He started a systems check through his heads-up display inside his mask while he made his way back out the door and into the hallway.

Several people bumped into him along his way through the ship some were setting up smoke barriers and getting firefighting equipment ready while others were getting repair tools and parts staged for use. Everyone else was moving anything flammable away from walls to prevent them possibly catching fire due to the heat that can transfer through the walls around the fire.

The water tanks were located along the underside of the ship and were exposed to several different areas of the ship. However, due to the design of the water tanks, most of the surface area was underneath the ground floor. This was designed on purpose so that in case of a leak it wouldn't cause flooding except for the lower storage areas.

Derrick reached the hatch that leads down to the storage room and was greeted by two armed crew members who were dressed out in fire protective gear but no armor. They were accompanied by three zerglings that were waiting for the hatch on the ground to open so they could find their quarry. The hatch was enclosed behind an air-tight door that acted as a smoke and flooding barrier in case of an emergency like this.

One of the men ran up to him and reported what happened in a shocked manner. "I haven't seen a Protoss like this one before, the damned thing was moving like a ghost. It, it moved right through me and went right down to the engineer storage room."

The brief description made Derrick believe it was either the same Protoss or of the same class that he fought a few weeks back. Without any armor, the humans would probably get killed by just a single hit from its weapon and the zerglings wouldn't be much better off.

"I'll be going in first. I want both of you right behind me, the zerglings will be right behind us." Derrick moved over to the hatch and started to open it.

The other human double checked his rifle to make sure it was ready for use and nervously eyed the zerglings a few feet away from him, fearful that he would have to trust them with his back turned. "Hey, we also need to be careful not to hit the tank itself. It can probably take a few hits but last I checked we had about thirty thousand gallons of pressurized water in there and I don't really like the thought of drowning in space."

"We'll be careful." Derrick replied before slowly cracking open the hatch for them to enter. He locked it in place and quietly moved down the stairs while scanning the room for the Protoss. After making his way down he quickly started to sweep the maze-like storage room by checking row after row of shelves with equipment that had layers of dust covering them.

The rest of the party was just catching up to him when they heard a low hum followed by loud pulse just a few rows down from them. The group took cover by the metal shelving with Derrick in front. Peeking around the corner he saw the Protoss with unmistakable golden crest suspended behind it, this was the same one from the Protoss vessel.

It was currently charging its weapon for another attack on the tank in front of it but wasn't having the desired effect of punching a hole through it. Scorch marks were very visible on the thick metal but did little more than heat the area. The Protoss knew how ineffective its weapon was and saw an alternative; above the tank itself was a much smaller pipe that was connected to the tank and was more susceptible to damage.

As it raised its arm for another attack, a voice from behind her called out.

"Drop your weapon!" Derrick and his companions surrounded the Protoss but held their fire. Their enemy held its ground with its cannon-like weapon still pointed towards the venerable pipe. "I said put it down!" He felt how anxious the zerglings were to fight a Protoss, he had to give them a mental command to stay behind him. He wanted a backup plan in-case it used its teleportation ability, if it used it then the zerglings could chase it down.

The Protoss appeared fearless or at least brave despite the disadvantage she had. The warrior shot a sharp glance at the zerglings then back to the ghost. "I remember you from before, along with the Zerg. You lead them, am I right?" She stated.

"Yeah, they're mine." Derrick responded with his finger resting beside the trigger to his gun.

She turned her attention to the other two humans and gave a warning to them, "I'm sure that you remember the last human that ruled the Zerg. He won't be any different." They both looked at each other with unsure expressions.

"I'm not Kerrigan." He retorted. "She was a monstrous bitch that almost wiped out half the galaxy. I would rather hang myself with barbed wire then become a tenth of what she was."

"And before Kerrigan became what she was, wasn't she a Terran ghost like yourself? Or is the book I read about your history inaccurate? And If you really aren't like the Queen of blades then why are you leading Zerg, even if it's just a few of them?"

Derrick was at a loss for words, he wasn't trying to convince the Protoss that he wasn't like the Queen of blades. He wasn't even sure if he was trying to convince the two men behind him or maybe if he said it enough he could convince himself and prevent him from falling down a slippery slope into a lust for power.

"History does have a tendency of repeating itself." She said. Suddenly, warp particles started to surround her, she was about to teleport back to the warp prism.

Derrick fired controlled burst into the Protoss to avoid hitting the tank, they impacted into the shields and fragmented to the sides. She quickly brought her own weapon above her head and fired at the valve.

Just as the water started pouring out her shields were penetrated by the combined fire of the Terrans, allowing one of Derrick's rounds to hit her in the center of her stomach. She let out a scream right before the warp prism teleported her back safely aboard.

A few of their bullets hit the tank when the Protoss teleported and left holes for more water to escape. They ran back to the hatch they entered from, the water was already up to their ankles by the time they got there. Derrick gave them the order to escape before him, the first man was halfway up the stairs when a loud metal clamping sound rang out through the storage room.

He looked up at the hatch to see watertight latches tighten from the outside. Someone trapped them down there.

"Sir!" Cried the man at the top of the stairs, he was trying with all his might to turn the unlocking mechanism but wasn't able to make it budge. "Someone from the outside shut us in, I can't open it. I think it's the Protoss."

The other man turned to him, "Sir that hatch was closed fairly quickly and we wounded it pretty badly. I'm not sure it was the Protoss."

"I think you might be right, someone else locked us down here." Derrick moved up the stairs to help turn the wheel. Even their combined strength couldn't budge it.

The water was still rising up at an alarming level and without another way out, they only had a few minutes before they faced drowning. "This isn't working!" One of them called out.

"No shit!" The other responded.

Derrick jumped down into about two feet of water and started giving out orders. "You three," He said to the zerglings, "start clawing the hatch to get it open while we try to plug these holes." He also informed one of his men to call the bridge using their radios.

They started moving through the water with increasing difficulty to the damaged pipe. It was about six inches in diameter with water bursting out with enough force to hit the wall behind them. They grabbed any materials they could find and started to plug the hole. It was no use, they weren't able to keep anything in place long enough to keep a seal because of the torrent of water, If the Protoss hit the pipe just a few feet further then they could use the valve to turn off the supply of water.

"Is there anything else we can do to stop this?" Derrick asked.

"Nothing that I know of."

"Well, then how about the bridge? Is anyone coming?"

"I haven't been able to reach them, the radio is fried from the water!"

"Well, that would have been nice to know!" Derrick shouted angrily at the lack of communication and he made his way back to the hatch through water that was past his waist. "How's this coming along?"

The zerglings were having trouble ripping through the thick metal, not because of the materials but because it was a difficult angle with the hatch being several feet above their heads the room that they had to move only allowed one of two of them to claw through it at a time. They were still able to make slow progress and managed to cut a large gash into it. It was enough for Derrick to be able to peer through and see a long wooden block on top of it that reached to the ceiling, preventing them from opening the hatch.

"Someone did trap us." Derrick mumbled under his breath.

A loud splash came from behind him. He turned around to see the several sections of shelving come loose from the deck with all their contents and created a wall of junk that separated the other men from him. They immediately stopped trying to plug the leak and rushed through chest-high water to move the equipment blocking them.

The ceiling above them was only four feet from the water line now and was still rising. The three of them were moving as much equipment as possible but the heavy shelving paired with a significant amount of junk such as empty boxes, wooden planks, and packaging materials floating at the top made their process hindered and slow.

One of the men started to panic as the water reached his neck and began to attempt to climb over all of the walls of junk. He made it halfway up before his clothing got snagged on some hidden object. This caused him to start to thrash about, trying to free himself as his partner attempted to cut through his clothing with a box cutter he found.

Derrick swam towards them to attempt to free the trapped man. He searched for whatever he was snagged on under the water and felt a large hook that was used to hang rope or other gear.

"You have to calm down!" Derrick shouted while grasping his hand to gain his attention. The man couldn't focus and only cared about freeing himself from the hook that his clothes were wrapped around. His partner was able to cut through the thick clothing and assist hoisting him the rest of the way up.

After doing so Derrick pulled him over the debris then his partner, making sure he didn't get caught on anything before swimming towards the exit. The hole was slightly larger when he got back, enough for one of the zerglings to stick it's head though and snap at the wooden block wedged between the ceiling and the hatch.

With a few quick bites, the wood was clear and they began to try loosening the locking mechanism once the zergling climbed back down to no avail, it didn't even budge an inch.

"It must have jammed itself when it was shut!" One of them cried out before turning back to Derrick. "Well, what are we going to do now?"

Suddenly a shadow appeared over the gash in the metal hatch. They all looked up and saw the face of a roach peering into the flooding space. It opened its mouth as a bright green bile began to secrete down its jaw.

"Everyone back up! Back up, back up!" Derrick began to pull the men away from the hatch with the limited room they had. With barely enough room between the waterline and the ceiling, they were all swimming, including the zerglings.

A single blast of acid bile from the roach was enough to quickly corrode and eat away at the hatch, creating an opening for them to escape from. The zerglings were sent up first because they didn't need time to wait for the bile to dissipate, their carapaces provided them with enough protection. Carefully but quickly the rest of them began to exit the flooded space with Derrick being the last one out. The two men assisted him out of the storage room and into the dry open space before sealing the watertight door they left open from earlier.

All three of them took a moment to catch their breath from their near drowning experience. The roach used its body as a support for Derrick to lean on while he poured the water out of his boots. He started to feel a Ryril's mind push against his, trying to contact him.

'I see the roaches arrived in time.'

'Yeah, thanks for that. Do you know if there's any other Protoss onboard?'

'There haven't been any other sightings that I know of but we might want to consider escaping in your dropship. These Terrans are not worth the trouble, they let one Protoss do this much damage to their ship. They are no use to us.'

'We are not abandoning these people but I do think the Protoss might have had help from one of the people here. While I was down there someone locked the hatch and pinned it closed with wooden beams.'

'Then what sense does it make to stay? If one of them betrayed us who knows how many more of them were a part of it.' Ryril's voice was filled with understandable frustration.

'We don't have time for this. When we get planetside we'll address it then, it could have even been someone trying to prevent more flooding. Until then have the swarm help in any way they can, I'm going to the bridge to help deal with this warp prism.'

'As you command.'

Derrick cut off the connection and hastily made his way back to the bridge up several levels with his zerglings behind him. He passed by several members of the crew, looking at their expressions to see if anyone was surprised that he was still alive. All of them were too busy to care that he walked by.

The bridge was just as chaotic as he left it but everyone seemed to focus their efforts and attention on the positioning of the warp prism rather than the planet they were approaching.

"We have a solution for the warp prism." Clarke, one of the navigation officers, shouted as Derrick entered.

"What do we have?" He replied while looking over the data on one of the side consoles.

"If we can make sure it comes either underneath us or in the center of one of our sides once we start to break the atmosphere, we might be able to hit it with our harpoons and bring it down."

"Do you think we can bait them in? Looks like they're starting to back off behind us."

Clarke took a moment to sketch a diagram of the ship's current course. "If we apply all of our emergency breaks here," He marked on the paper. "just as we get into the upper atmosphere we might be able to force them to make a sharp turn to either side of us where we'll have our harpoons ready for them."

"We're going to detach the cables to them first, right?"

"Of course. As long as they don't pull up above us then we have a shot at them. However our window is pretty narrow, we'll have to pick up speed again so we can make course corrections and land safely."

"How long do we have before we need to hit the throttle?" Derrick asked.

"Anywhere between twenty-five and thirty-five seconds depending on how the weather is." Clarke looked away from the diagram and down to a puddle where Derrick was standing. "Captain, what happened to your clothes?"

"I'll tell you later, how long until we break the atmosphere and do we have enough time to put this in action?"

Clarke seemed genuinely worried about him but returned his focus but to the task, "Were starting the decent in less than five minutes so we already told the gunners down below to start loading the harpoons."

Derrick started to make his way to the center of the room, behind the captain's chair. "Make sure everyone Is ready when he hit the brakes. I don't want to get tossed around and kill themselves."

While Clarke passed the information over the ship's intercom Derrick contacted Ryril and gave her step by step instructions to have one of his medical emergency kits ready for him in case he needed it. He's been in extremely stressful situations before but as a follower, never as the leader and It was starting to mess with his mind.

All that was left now for him was to wait for their approach. He took a good look at the planet's vast seas and continents. The land they were above appeared to be snowy terrain and to its south where they were headed along the eastern coast, he could see green forest and brown plains. Perhaps he would take part of Ryril's advice and let the crew repair and take the hindsight away, leaving him with his dropship and the Zerg to do as they please.

Nobody would ever be able to find them after the Protoss was taken care of, not them, the Dominion or even Kerrigan herself would know where to look. He would be as free as he was just a few weeks ago to do what he wanted.

He could even go down to the hangar and leave everyone for themselves, all he had to do was fill his dropship with gas, dump his equipment to lighten it for further travel, and leave to go back to what was left of Raynor's Raiders.

These weren't his people, two months ago he would have killed everyone aboard a ship like this to fill a contract. Two years ago he would have been sent with a few other ghosts to nuke a small Zerg brood. And yet here he was forced to make sure that both sides made it safely to the planet.

If he just left that Protoss ship alone instead of scavenging he wouldn't be here, If he just ran when he saw that first zergling he wouldn't be here, If he just killed Ryril when she asked him to lead-

"Captain!" Clarke shouted, breaking Derrick's trance-like state. "We're decelerating in ten seconds, hang onto something."

He gripped onto the railing beside him and braced himself for the sudden jolt, counting down inside his head, 'Three… two… one…' The Hindsight opened all of its flaps to increase drag, slowing it down immediately. He would've launched over the railing if he wasn't warned. The sudden jolt sent everything that wasn't bolted down was sent forward, thankfully someone secured the fire extinguisher used earlier.

"Warp prism approaching on our port side!" One of the navigators called out.

"Have the gunners fire when they have a clear shot." Clarke responded.

Derrick went to the left side of the bridge and looked out to window. The warp prism didn't know they were going to slow down so quickly and had to dodge to the side, allowing the Hindsight to have a clear shot at their side.

The harpoon clashed into their side and broke their shields but failed to puncture their hull, allowing them to slow down and recover. Instead of pulling away to the side of them, the warp prism ducked underneath them where most smaller Dominion vessels don't have guns. They didn't realize the Hindsight was a pirate ship with a loaded harpoon pointed down at them.

Another direct hit on top of the Protoss ship made it stall and start to expel white smoke. After a few desperate attempts to maintain altitude it started its slow descent into a snowy forest below.

The bridge was filled with cheers and brotherly embraces for none of them have been able to bring down a Protoss vessel in their lives. Derrick sat down in his chair and let out I sigh of relief as the ship was beginning to accelerate again as planned.

Clarke approached him with the biggest grin he's had in a long time. "Nice work there, looks like your plan actually worked." Derrick congratulated and gave him a high-five.

"I actually can't believe that worked. I mean everything would have gone to shit if they didn't go underneath us, as soon as the first one hit and only took out the shield-" Clarke continued to talk about how it could have failed but Derrick's attention started to shift to the window in front of them. And how the nose of the ship was starting to dip downward.

Everyone felt the sudden shift and ran back to their post to see what was going on. The weight shit started to force the bridge team to either lean back steadily or hunch over their controls as they searched the ship's systems.

"We have an alarm." Someone shouted before reading off the alarm on his monitor, "'Upper flaps hydraulics pressure loss'. It's putting us in a dive because it can't close on its own!"

Clarke took control immediately, "We don't have time to troubleshoot the problem, open lower flaps to even us out. I need someone to sound the collision alarm, we won't have enough speed to stay airborne."

The high-pitched alarm filled the room as their dive slowed. Derrick looked out the window and saw that the snowy landscape was now a light brown plain a few miles underneath them with patches of green spread throughout. Beyond that was a large ocean that was getting closer. "I'm trusting you on this Clarke!" Derrick shouted.

Clarke grabbed the throttle and started feathering it to maintain a controlled descent. "Grab me that microphone on the wall!" He told Derrick. Clarke grabbed it from him without looking away from the spot he wanted to land the ship. "Prepare for impact on the bow and underside of the ship. Impact in five…"

Derrick told Ryril to brace herself while grabbing onto the same railing as before.

"Four…"

A familiar presence started to push at his mind.

"Three…"

The presence forced its way into his mind.

"Two…"

It was the same voice as before, the same one that gave him those visions.

"One…"

It gave him a simple message.

"Winter is coming."

 **We haven't seen the last of the Protoss.**

 **We have finally landed in Westeros, six chapters and twenty-seven thousand words later. I know that It took a very long time for me to post this, I don't like posting this far behind but I hope that since It was a very long chapter It will make up just a little bit of it. My original plan was to break this chapter up to go into better detail but I was already over my goal of a five chapter intro to the story. I would love to have some feedback about the way I've set this story up so far, It would help out tremendously with writer's block and encourage me to write faster. Plus it would help you have some input on what happens in the story along with it's characters.**


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